Three main religions in Thailand ban smoking in religious places

BANGKOK, January 17 (TNA) - Leaders of three main religions in Thailand, including Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, have agreed to join forces in imposing a total ban on smoking in their religious places, with violators to be decisively fined up to 2,000 baht each. Professor Dr. Ronnachai Kongsakon, Secretary-General of the National Alliance for Tobacco Free Thailand (NATFT), told journalists on Saturday (Jan 17) that NATFT and the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation Thailand and the leaders of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam have agreed to jointly launch a campaigning project, aimed to totally ban smoking at religious places of the three main religions in the country. Dr. Ronnachai said the pilot project will be started with Wat Prayurawongsawas Woraviharn, a Buddhist temple having won an honourable award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for best cultural heritage conservation, Santa Cruz Church and Bang Luang Mosque, all are in Bangkok. Dr. Ronnachai stated that the main objective of the project is to inform the public and all religious venues that smoking causes harm to everybody. According to the NATFT secretary-general, the Thai law also clearly stipulates that violations of smoking at religious places are to be arrested and/or fined of no more than 2,000 baht each. NATFT President Professor Emeritus Dr. Somsri Paosawas acknowledged, meanwhile, that NATFT has found that smoking has been on the rise in Thailand over the past five years and the joint campaigning project has, thus, been launched, aimed to reduce the country's smoking rate to 15 per cent of the total Thai population by 2025, in line with the United Nations' target on reducing major risk factors of non-communicable diseases. Cigarette is the most used form of drugs among world population, as around 1.3 billion of them are addicted to smoking. with 5.4 million have died from smoking each year, or around 14,794 each day, or 616 each hour, or around 10 persons each minute. In Thailand alone, about 50,710 people have died from smoking each year, or about 139 persons each day, or 5.7 each hour.The average age for Thais to start smoking is 18 years old, while smoking is the main cause of cancer in the country. (TNA)