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June 22nd, 2012:

How are they going to manage that? Vietnamese government passes new law to ban its chain-smoking citizens in all public places

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2162732/New-Vietnamese-law-bans-smoking-public-places.html

By Matt Blake

PUBLISHED:15:26 GMT, 21 June 2012 | UPDATED:08:30 GMT, 22 June 2012

The Vietnamese government has issued a blanket ban on smoking in public places to replace old rules that have been completely ignored.

The new law will also outlaw advertising tobacco products as well as the sale of tobacco products to those under 18 – something that has not been stipulated in Vietnam’s laws before.

It is intended to beef up widely ignored rules enacted in 2010 that banned lighting up in public areas – including schools, hospitals, office buildings and on public transport.

Blanket ban: A man smokes a cigarette outside a temple's wall murals in Hue. The new law will also outlaw advertising tobacco products as well as the sale of tobacco products to those under 18

Blanket ban: A man smokes a cigarette outside a temple’s wall murals in Hue. The new law will also outlaw advertising tobacco products as well as the sale of tobacco products to those under 18

Despite the current legislation, bars and kiosks have continued to sell cigarettes on almost every street corner in capital Hanoi.

The new law was passed by 440 out of 468 national assembly deputies on Monday and will come into effect in May next year.

Flouting the law would incur heavy on-the-spot fines.

According to The anti-smoking campaign group Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), there are currently 15.3 million smokers in Vietnam. About 47.4 per cent of adult males smoke.

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Tobacco kills 40,000 people per year in Vietnam and that figure is expected to rise to 70,000 per year by 2030, according to local media reports.

SEATCA welcomed the new law – the full text of which has not yet been released – saying it was a ‘historic and important milestone’ for the country.

‘We are very happy about this development,’ SEATCA director Bungon Ritthiphakdee said, adding that the final version of the law was strong and in line with the WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.