Gwangju City Strengthens Supervision Including Inspections of Smoke-Free Apartments

Smoking Cessation Counselors Inspected and Guided Until March... Fines Imposed on Violators Thereafter

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 7th that it will strengthen administrative support, guidance, and supervision for non-smoking apartments.

To this end, a guidance and inspection period will be set until March, and inspection teams including non-smoking guides from each autonomous district will be organized to explain the purpose of designating non-smoking apartments and inform residents about the imposition of fines.

After the guidance period, violators who smoke within the non-smoking areas of non-smoking apartments will be fined up to 100,000 KRW.

Non-smoking apartments were introduced in 2017 based on the revision of the "National Health Promotion Act" to prevent secondhand smoke damage within apartments and create a pleasant environment, and are designated and operated with the consent of the majority of residents.

Currently, there are a total of 60 designated non-smoking apartments in Gwangju: 8 in Dong-gu, 2 in Seo-gu, 16 in Nam-gu, 12 in Buk-gu, and 22 in Gwangsan-gu.

Non-smoking apartments can only designate certain common areas such as hallways, stairs, and underground parking lots as non-smoking zones. Due to smoking outside designated areas, the absence of smoking zones for smokers, and a shortage of administrative personnel for guidance and enforcement due to COVID-19 response, there have been ongoing criticisms that these apartments are non-smoking in name only.

In response, Gwangju City plans to focus on continuous guidance and inspection using non-smoking guides from each autonomous district and provide administrative support to create a non-smoking environment to ensure the effectiveness of non-smoking apartment designations.

Additionally, to strengthen the creation of a non-smoking environment, the city will promote ▲ support for the production of non-smoking zone signs and banners ▲ operation of mobile non-smoking clinics ▲ provision of supplies for the designation of separate smoking areas.

Im Jin-seok, Director of the City Health Policy Division, said, “The cooperation of residents is most important for creating a pleasant and safe non-smoking apartment,” and added, “We will continue administrative support for management along with expanding the designation of non-smoking apartments.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.