Heading to Kerala? Make sure to stub out that cigarette before you enter your hotel.
Come New Year, Kerala’s hoteliers will shut their doors on smokers, in phases though.
Veteran hotelier D. Chandrasenan Nair, General Convenor of South Kerala Hoteliers Forum, says that the industry is all set to implement the provisions of Section 4 of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Prohibition Act, 2003.
G. Sudhiesh Kumar, State President of the 20,000-member Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association, said the decision was approved at its annual general meeting in Kochi. “We realise that this is not easy especially in bar hotels, but we are going ahead with the decision to protect non-smokers.”
US study The trigger for the radical move is a study in the US which suggests that when a hotel allows smoking in any of its rooms, the smoke gets into the other areas too.
Nicotine residue and other chemical traces don’t stay just in the ‘smoking’ rooms. They end up in the hallways and in other rooms, including non-smoking areas, it said.
The hotel industry here is looking at the larger benefits that will accrue to public health as against the possible short-term losses from implementing smoke-free rules.
NOT EASY The provisions of the Act will be implemented in a phased manner, said Kumar, who is also District President of the Kerala Bar Hotels Association for Thiruvananthapuram.
He reiterated his association’s resolve to have Act-mandated signages put up at all hotels and restaurants.
The Act insists that hotels and restaurants display signboards stating, ‘No Smoking Area – Smoking here is an offence” in English and/or the regional language. They need to be placed at all entrances and other conspicuous places. Ashtrays, matches, lighters or smoking aids are banned.
In multi-storey buildings, the signages have to be put up at each floor including the staircase and the entrance to the lift at each level.
PASSIVE SMOKING M. R. Narayanan, Secretary-General of the South Kerala Hoteliers Forum, said the industry must make all effort to curtail passive smoking. Mathew Thomas of the Association of Approved and Classified Hotels of Kerala and S. Ajith Kumar of the South India Hotels and Restaurants Association could not agree more.
vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in