Smoking will soon be banned at all eateries in Malaysia, and this includes open-air premises as well as those without air-conditioning.
According to the Health Ministry, you will no longer be allowed to smoke at mamak stalls, kopitiams and food courts. The ministry will also be turning all public and national parks, including theme parks, into non-smoking zones.
This ban adds on to the current non-smoking zones, which include air-conditioned restaurants, shopping centres, sheltered walkways, and around rest-stops along the highways.
Several coffeeshop associations and restaurant owners have protested the ban, saying that they would lose business as soon as the ban is implemented and that it should be the choice of the owner to decide whether their eatery would be a smoking or non-smoking eatery.
The Ministry of Health still wants public feedback on whether smoking should be allowed in a special area of an eatery, or not to be allowed at all. It also wants to know whether eatery owners should be held responsible if customers go against the ban.
Kindly provide your views before 18 May via its website.
The move is aimed at discouraging smoking among Malaysians and offenders can be fined between RM250 to RM500.
[Source]
