The Thai Health Promotion Foundation, the Koh Samui municipality, and the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation are pushing to make Koh Tao Island in Surat Thani province a smoke-free area along with Koh Samui and Ko Pha Ngan in the ‘Islanders get together for no smoke’ campaign.
Local leaders, the general public, and the media have visited communities and tourist attractions to hand out anti-smoke stickers to the people and merchants in the area. The campaign aims to improve the tourism image of the island.
In Thailand, there is a Non-Smoker’s Health Protection Act which has decreed that public areas must be smoke-free in order to protect the health of non-smokers from the dangers of second hand smoking.
The Ministry of the Public Health has also announced additional smoke-free areas to guard the health of the public.
According to the Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, Prakit Vathesatogkit, about 50,710 people in Thailand have died each year from smoking during 2013-2014.
The campaign on the islands are expected to help reduce the number of deaths from smoking, said the Executive Secretary. – See more at: http://thainews.prd.go.th/CenterWeb/NewsEN/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNSOC5711150010019#sthash.ey7Ie24K.dpuf