In the grand scheme of things, those penalties seem very harsh. I read a few Trash Hero reports, and discarded cigarette butts seem to be a huge problem. However, there's a huge amount of beach - how will it be policed?
Championship Plymouth Argyle 3 - 3 Preston NE (was 3-0 down after 48 minutes)
Here is the English language report (Bangkok Post have just translated the Thai report):
Smoking will soon be banned on 20 popular tourist beaches found to be constantly littered with huge numbers of discarded cigarette butts, according to the chief of marine and coastal resources.
The move comes ahead of an international conference on sea waste in Phuket later this month, Thai media reported.
An examination of just 9 square metres of Patong Beach on Phuket by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources’ Phuket Marine Biological Centre on Sept 9 found an average 0.76 butts per square metre. This translated into 101,058 butts along the 2.5km beach.
The discarded butts made up about one-third of all the rubbish collected.
Long live the stupidity
Why don't Thailand just close the border, so that no tourists can arrive into Thailand.
Tourism is ONLY 12% of the BNP
Good luck to the stupidity in Thailand
! Never look back and regret,
look back and smile at what you have learned !
I wonder if really discarded, as cigarette smoking is way down worldwide, or washed in on the tide? Perhaps from barges dumping municipal waste at sea? Pete
EDIT: On second thought, I forgot about the influx of Chinese tourists who smoke like chimneys. There could be something to it.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
While they're at it, please ban horse manure thoughtfully left on the beach in plastic bags by the jockeys; and dog poo sometimes disguised with a sprinkling of sand by Thai but more often foreign owners. Khao Takiab beach is a dog toilet where scooping the poop seems to be unheard of.
I assume all these bad comments are written by the small majority of smokers who don't seem to mind the litter they leave and the discomfort they cause to others by blowing smoke into their faces or letting the wind blow it there. Well done Thailand bringing in a measure to help the large majority of none smokers is a good thing!
being a none smoker whats next . no food no beer no ball games no walking on the sand . well what all this says to tourists go somewhere else like Cambodia. some jumped up little government official needs to get a grip or better still fired.
I am a non-smoker and detest the smell. I only go to bars with an open air feel as the no smoking in bars is now being ignored BUT--I walk on the beach several times a week and on Mondays do my own little clean up of plasic bottles candy wrappers etc--Cig buts are not a problem.
A lot of them are beneath the sand, or get washed out to sea.
We manage a local Trash Hero chapter and believe me, cigarette butts are a huge problem (but yes, plastic is worse).
Banning smoking isn't really the answer though, a typical Thailand response is to use a tank to shoot a bird. The fines should be dished out for littering.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
I can't imagine many tourists walking onto a beach here and even noticing a cigarette but when there is so much other litter to catch their attention. If I have been to the beach tens times since we moved from Takiap about 9 or 10 years ago, it is a lot.
Sorry if I offend anyone, but in my opinion, many of Thailand's beaches are among the filthiest I have ever seen.
Admittedly, I have not been back to my own country since leaving for a 1 year break in 1995, so I have no idea of what the beaches look like now but in the past they were spotless, and that without any Big Brother looking down on you.
I just feel sorry for the hapless tourists who find themselves having to sponsor New Year parties when the unknowing light up on the beach.
You can drive any way you want, even kill a few people while doing so, and that's not a problem, but please don't smoke on tourist beaches. We want their lungs nice a clean for when Somchai's car drives past with so much smoke coming out it that the vehicle is barely visible.
Don't try to impress me with your manner of dress cos a monkey himself is a monkey no less - cold fact
