Smoking Ban Effective July 15th...

[Lax1724]

Here is what I have learned on this thread:

1. Smokers rarely if ever litter by tossing their cigarette butt out the window or on the beach. However, they do regularly pick up other trash that they come across.
2. The harmful effects of cigarette smoke (including second hand) is no different than burning sugar cane, charcoal and bon fires.
3. The surgeon general's findings about smoking are not nearly as valid as those that have been provided by the good folks at the tabaco companies.

[jamaicarob]

ya mon, i agree, soon come

[gailnegril]

Hello Lax, fact is I pick up cigarette butts on my beach for exercise lol. Daily I find no less than 1-2dz butts!
I look at it as a love law. We love you now quit smoking! Also smoke lingers in rooms, so much work to "un smoke " a room. Drapes have to be washed etc..
So now that the ban is in effect I will have to do some alternate exercise hopefully.

[dash]

I'M a non smoker but love the sweet smell of pot and drool at the smell of charcoal and wood fires. I love the aroma of most pipe tobacco. Incense is probably unhealthy as well but adds a pleasurable dimension to a room. I will avoid anyone who has just finished a cigarette and get annoyed when a waft of cigarette smoke floats by my dining table even on a terrace. Ignoring the obvious health issues cigarettes just smell really bad. So please if you have a need to smoke in front of me .....make it a sub. Thank you for not smoking cigarettes!

[Rob]

This law is for revenue generation. Come on, with all the issues in Jamaica this should be way down the list of priorities!

Goldilocks,

While this may be your opinion, the Jamaican Health Minister Dr. Ferguson has a different take on it, including counseling:

" Ferguson urges smokers to respect rights of others

Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson has said he is willing to look at the possibility of allowing businesses, especially in the tourist industry, to have a special area outdoors to facilitate smokers.


Speaking on the Jamaica Information Service programme 'Issues and Answers' on Thursday, he was clear about not allowing smoking rooms.


"The evidence is clear that smoking kills. The evidence is clear that passive smoking kills. So, to put 10 to 15 persons in this room, what you are essentially setting up is a death chamber, because you now have concentration of smoking," he said.


NOT A WHOLESALE BAN


He pointed out that the new anti-smoking regulations are not a wholesale ban on smoking. "What we want to define is that once it (smoking) is going to impinge on someone else's right, then the ban chips in. So, in essence, if you want the right to smoke, do it where you do not affect the public in general," he said.


Ferguson said he was not averse to having a second look at the penalties for breaking the ban, to include mandatory counselling for offenders.


"I know some persons are a little worried about the fines, and even conviction. My thing is not about sending anyone to prison. So, probably we might need to look, in revisiting, at some kind of mandatory counselling sessions, because cigarette smoking is an addiction, and to that extent, it oftentimes require professional help," he said."


http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead5.html

All of this seems like a rather common sense approach to a well known health hazard...

[N5_]

Will the smoking lounge at MBJ close because of this?

[DConkle]

It will be interesting next April to see how all of this is playing out.

[Rob]

More interesting news about how the smoking ban will be playing out, especially for the tourism areas...

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=46614

[Jaherring]

It will be nice when cigs are a thing of the past. They stink. period.

[DaRev]

Boardies,
The last day we were in Negril, we were told that the Jamaican government had instituted a really strict smoking ban.. No smoking in any public place - including the open air restaurants like the one we ate at at Fun Holiday.. Milton (the manager at Fun Holiday) indicated that the hotel can be fined for allowing folks to smoke in "public" places! He said they may even start to stop people from smoking in the streets or on the beach.. Maybe Rob can clarify some of this.. We also heard an add on the radio on our way back to the airport that talked about the ban.. I like a cigar when I am on vacation... I am not thrilled about this - I just hope they enforce this in the same way they enforce the "other" smoking laws!