UI campus becomes no-smoking zone

JAKARTA (JP): The University of Indonesia has designated its campus on Jl. Salemba Raya in Central Jakarta -- home to three medical schools -- as a no-smoking zone.

The ruling, which took effect Saturday, gives the university what is probably the country's first smoke-free campus.

The achievement was marked in a ceremony presided over by an assistant to the university's rector, Kusmardiono, at the Salemba campus on Saturday.

The campus, which is located in the same complex as Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, accommodates the university's schools of medicine, dentistry and nursing.

The other schools of the university are located in Depok, south of here.

In his speech, Kusmardiono urged other universities to follow suit in an attempt to prevent more people from contracting smoking-related ailments, Antara reported.

He said the decision to make the Salemba campus a no-smoking area had resulted from the university's cooperation with an organization called the Solving Smoking Problems Institution (LM3).

When asked for comment, LM3 chairperson Mrs. Singgih said the government should issue regulations to protect non-smokers in public places and to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to teenage children.

"The regulations should be backed up with suitable punishments so that our society can be rid of the diseases caused by smoking," she said. (bsr)