'The last thing I want is a boyfriend who smokes'

The national antismoking campaign has made little progress as not all government and local government offices have been declared nonsmoking areas due to the absence of bylaws to implement antitobacco regulations, according to Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi. Instead of curbing the number of smokers, tobacco consumption during the period of 1977 to 2000 increased sevenfold, from 33 billion to 187 billion cigarettes per year. The Jakarta Post asked a few residents for their opinion on the matter.

Rina, 20, is a shop attendant at the Arion shopping mall in East Jakarta. She lives in Rawamangun, also in East Jakarta:

I don't smoke, I don't like smokers, and the last thing I would want to have is a boyfriend who smokes. Thank goodness no one in my family is a smoker.

It's just that I cannot stand the stench of cigarette smoke and the ashes flying everywhere. The odor, in particular, is quite hard to eradicate once it gets in your clothes.

So I would be very supportive if there were indeed a policy to limit or restrict, or even forbid, smoking in public spaces.

I would also like to suggest that it be made compulsory for smokers to always use an ashtray when smoking, and always throw away their cigarette butts in trash bins after properly extinguishing them. Besides being dangerous, if improperly doused, the still-burning ashes and still-lit cigarette butts become litter.

Endah Sumiati, 38, an English teacher, lives in Setu subdistrict, Serpong, Tangerang:

I welcome efforts to discourage smoking. Smoking not only causes health problems for smokers, but also for those around them who inhale the smoke.

The smoking prohibition, or limitation, must not only be implemented inside air-conditioned buildings and other government offices, but also in public vehicles.

I'm very annoyed if a fellow passenger smokes. It would seem that the smoker has no guilt, although he has disturbed nearly everyone else inside the vehicle.

Unfortunately, the antismoking campaign is only half-hearted as it still allows cigarette advertisements to be aired on television.

-- The Jakarta Post