City to put smoking ban into effect after June 2010

The Jakarta Post | Sat, 05/22/2010 9:04 AM | Headlines

The city administration plans to enact the bylaw banning smoking in buildings in the near future but questions on its effectiveness remain.

“The bylaw has been in place since May 6. However, there will be an awareness campaign through the media and to building owners before it really takes effect,” city environmental agency (BPLH) head Peni Susanti told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

She said the campaign would last probably until June.

The 2010 Gubernatorial Decree states that smoking areas must be located outside of buildings and away from entrance areas. The sanctions, which are directed to building management, include a written warning and naming the establishment in the media if it continued to allow

smoking.

The new bylaw was drafted following a study conducted by BPLH and Swisscontact Indonesia Foundation, which discovered that nicotine still seeped into the air even if smokers lit up in designated smoking areas.

The study discovered that nicotine was found in 86 percent of no-smoking areas in surveyed restaurants, 32 percent of school areas and 68 percent of hospital areas inspected, which, according to the survey, proved that designated smoking rooms were ineffective in containing cigarette smoke.

The new decree amends the 2005 decree, which stated that smoking areas must be separated from non-smoking areas, equipped with exhaust fans, ashtrays and information about the dangers of smoking.

Swisscontact executive director for Indonesia Dollaris Riauaty Suhadi said her foundation had prepared financial support for the administration to perform inspections on 780 building up to April next year, with one inspection costing around Rp 300,000 (US$32.4). After April, the administration will have to fund its own inspections.

Association of Shopping Center Managers of Indonesia head Stefanus Ridwan said shopping centers had spent millions on building special smoking rooms. “It’s impractical to think that visitors have to go outside the shopping centers just for a smoke,” he said.

Stefanus said the heart of the issue lied in the administration’s commitment to enforcing the rules it drafted.

“In 2005, officials actively supervised the implementation only in the first few months, after which they stopped. In the end, people went back to their old habits.