Gwangju Nam-gu, Consecutive Designations of 'No Smoking Zone Streets' Around School Routes

Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, has taken steps to protect the health of children and adolescents by designating and announcing school surroundings within the district as smoke-free zones to prevent harm caused by secondhand smoke around school routes.

On the 10th, Nam-gu stated, "To improve the harmful environment of youth smoking and create a smoke-free atmosphere, two school routes around schools have been newly designated and operated as smoke-free zone streets," adding, "We plan to establish a smoke-free culture around schools in the community through intensive promotion and guidance activities until early next year."

The newly designated smoke-free zone streets include a 218-meter section of the school route near Seonmyeong School in Juwol 1-dong and a 344-meter section of the school route near Bangnim Elementary School in Bangnim 2-dong.

Nam-gu designated these two locations as new smoke-free zone streets after collecting opinions from schools and residents around schools within the district from June to October.

Accordingly, around Bangnim Elementary School, one of the newly designated smoke-free zone streets, stickers indicating the smoke-free zone have been placed on the school routes and school zone fences, and smoke-free zone signs have been installed on the school walls and sidewalks.

Additionally, around the Seonmyeong School route, smoke-free zone road markings and other measures to prevent harm from smoking will be established within this month.

At both locations, stickers indicating the smoke-free zone have been attached to the school routes and school zone fences, and smoke-free zone signs have been installed on the school walls and sidewalks.

Nam-gu plans to enforce regulations within the smoke-free zones after a 90-day guidance period.

The guidance period around the Seonmyeong School route and Bangnim Elementary School route will last until January 30, 2024, and February 4, 2024, respectively. Afterward, anyone caught smoking in these areas will be fined 50,000 KRW.

A Nam-gu official said, "We plan to continue expanding the designation of smoke-free streets to protect the health of school-age children and adolescents," adding, "We will take the lead in establishing a smoke-free culture in the community so that children can grow up in a healthy environment."

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