UI campus becomes no-smoking zone

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)