The survey was conducted on a randomly selected sample of 1030 Indians aged between 15 and 64. They were interviewed in the month of August. “Eleven per cent of the total interviewed persons were smokers and majority were males. All were in favour of the law,” said Dr P C Gupta, director, Healis- Sekhsaria Institue for Public Health.

Mumbai along with Delhi and Chennai will also kick start a ‘smoke-free Mumbai’ campaign. Tata Memorial Hospital, the premier cancer institute in Asia, funded by Bloomberg Foundation has planned a number activities to make Mumbai smoke free as a run up to the 14th World Conference on Tobacco and Health scheduled in March next year. “Apart from other campaigns, advertisements in newspapers and electronic media will be issued in public interest,” said Dr Surendra Shastri, professor and head, department of preventive oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital.

The dos and dont’s

Effective from October 2, the new law banning smoking in public places and workplaces will be applicable to hotels, restaurants, coffee houses, pubs, bars, airport lounges, workplaces shopping malls, cinema halls, educational institutions, libraries, hospitals, auditorium, open auditoriums, amusement centers, stadium, railway stations, bus stop. Individuals in charge of public places and workplaces will be held responsible for complying with the law.

They need to ensure, smoking is permitted in rooms physically separated and surrounded by full height walls. The rooms should have an entrance with doors that close automatically and an air system that is exhausted directly outside.

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