July 1, 2019

Anna Murray 

Thailand has recently announced the "Family Development and Protection Act" in June to prohibit smoking at home, which puts relatives living under the same roof at serious health risk and is regarded as an offense. Thai government believes that second-hand and third-hand smoke generated by smoking at home may harm the health of other vulnerable family members. It is a kind of “domestic abuse”. The new law will come into effect from August 20. While no penalty details have been released yet, those who violate the law will face criminal proceedings, stop smoking in the house and undertake a rehabilitation course to quit smoking.

Lung cancer ranks first in the cause of cancer death in Thailand. In the last few years, an average of more than 9,000 people died of lung cancer every year. The risk of smokers dying of lung cancer is 10 times higher than that of ordinary people. Besides smoking, housewives’ cooking fumes in the kitchen or fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in polluted air are considered to be "invisible killers."

In Thailand, each year about 400,000 people died of smoking-related chronic diseases. Someone smokes in nearly 5 million households and more than 10 million people inhale second-hand smoke at home. Therefore, the Thai officials are stepping up efforts to reduce the number of smokers at least by 30% before 2025.

Photo:Webshot.