‘Remove designated smoking rooms at hotels, airports’
Hyderabad: Doctors, cancer victims, public health activists and voluntary organisations have urged the union Government to remove designated smoking rooms at hotels/restaurants and airports to protect people from second-hand smoke. In an appeal, the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) has sought immediate removal of provisions that permits smoking areas and make the country 100 per cent smoke free.
As per the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce Production, Supply and Distribution) Act COTPA 2003, smoking is banned in public. However, at present, certain provisions in COTPA allows for smoking in certain public places like restaurants, hotels, and airports, in designated smoking areas.
“All designated smoking areas should be abolished to ensure a 100 per cent smoke free environment. Most of these designated smoking areas are rarely compliant as per COTPA requirements and are actually putting public at great health risk from exposure to secondhand smoke,” Dr Venkat Rao, State Project Manager, VHAI, said.
Cancer specialists from Hyderabad pointed out that it has become necessary to regulate smoking in public places. “Given the burden of cancers due to tobacco use, there is a definite need to strengthen efforts to make the country 100 per cent smoke free,” senior surgical oncologist, Yashoda Hospitals, Dr K Sreekanth said.
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