[Intl-tobacco] Taiwan Goes Smokefree; Bans Smoking by Pregnant Mothers

[Robert Weissman]

*http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=59659&GRP=B
Tobacco ban to be extended to protect pregnancy*

*/2005/3/15
The China Post staff/*


Expectant mothers will be forbidden to smoke, and anybody who supplies
them with tobacco will be fined, according to an amendment to the
Tobacco Hazards Act.

In a public hearing yesterday, a Department of Health official said the
amendment is necessary to protect mothers-to-be and their babies as well.

A new provision is added to the act, which has been in force for seven
years, outlaws the smoking by expectant mothers, who, if found, will be
fined between NT$10,000 and NT$50,000, said Lin Hsiu-chuan, DOH director
of public health.

So will be those who provide cigarettes and other tobacco products for
girls or women carrying babies, Lin said.

"We are adding the new provision," Lin said, "because expectant mothers
who smoke harm themselves as well as the babies they carry. The
mortality rate of new-born babies whose mothers smoke is almost twice
that of those of non-smoking mothers."

In addition, the amended law will ban tobacco in all public places,
including pubs, restaurants, bars, cafes and teahouses.

Small eateries, including those open at night only, are required to
provide an exclusive smokers-only room, which must be fully
air-conditioned and not larger than all the other spaces of those
establishments.

Tobacco manufacturers and dealers will be prohibited from inserting
advertisements in magazines and making contributions to cultural and
social welfare organizations.

Opposition was raised at the public hearing.

Makers and dealers cried foul, claiming it is unfair to further "punish"
them just after the tobacco tax has been doubled. The tax is now NT$10
per pack of 20 cigarettes.

Moreover, they complained the amended act would make smuggling "even
more rampant" at the expense of the national tax revenue.

They joined small eatery representatives in urging the DOH to reconsider
the amendment, which has yet to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for
deliberation.

Eatery owners, in particular, accused the DOH of attempting to ruin them.

"No eatery can provide the mandated room for smokers," one
representative said. "And no visitors to night eateries don't smoke."

What the DOH is trying to do by passing the amendment, he went on, is
"to get rid of all of us."

Meanwhile, 53 organizations have formed an anti-smoking league and got
support from a score of lawmakers to add another provision to the act to
be amended.

The provision requires a total ban on tobacco advertisements in media
and mandates the warning against tobacco to take up at least 60 percent
of the printed cover of a cigarette package.