By law, NAIA should be 100% smoke-free indoors (part 1)

Last week, Sen. Pia Cayetano complained about the poor condition of NAIA, particularly focusing on the filthy air caused by allowing smoking indoors.

In April 2012, I wrote to the MIAA general manager on this very issue. I'll share the reply I got from MIAA, as well as the CSC legal opinion, in my next blog posts.

Part 2
Part 3

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Date: Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 9:50 PM

Subject: smoking rooms at NAIA

To: gmo@miaa.gov.ph, sagm@miaa.gov.ph, aod@miaa.gov.ph, pao@miaa.gov.ph, media@miaa.gov.ph,md@miaa.gov.ph, rfd@miaa.gov.ph

Cc: mmou@webmail.csc.gov.ph, <smoke_free_bureaucracy@yahoo.com>

MGen. Jose Angel A. Honrado, AFP (Ret)

General Manager

MIAA

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you about my recent experience flying through NAIA, wherein I and hundreds of other departing passengers were involuntarily subjected to the harmful fumes of tobacco smoke coming from the smoking room at the departure area. Unfortunately, this harm to health of all passengers, as well as airport and airline staff, is occurring on a daily basis.

The scientific evidence on this matter spans decades and is very clear in its conclusions: there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. This is widely recognized by the World Health Organization, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as well as the 174 Parties (including the Philippines) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).  The only way to prevent health harms is through effective public protection policies that prevent human exposure to tobacco smoke, that is by prohibiting smoking in all indoor public places and workplaces.

Given that the airport, as well as the MIAA, are government premises and that MIAA staff are government employees, the MIAA is also duty-bound to implement the Civil Service  Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular no. 17, s. 2009, which prohibits smoking in all government buildings and promotes a 100% smoke-free environment in government premises, in order to protect both the government workforce and the public that they serve.  I am sure the CSC can assist you in preparing the proper signages to implement this policy. 

I therefore appeal to you to remove the smoking lounges from the various NAIA terminal buildings and designate only OUTDOOR smoking areas, in locations where the smoke will not be able to affect the airport staff and the public that uses the airport facilities.  For your information, there are more than 250 airports in the United States that are 100% smoke-free, including some of the biggest and busiest ones. There are also many others in Canada, South America, Australia, and Europe. Even Beijing Capital International Airport closed its smoking lounges and became 100% smoke-free in 2011. Other Asian countries are also planning to follow suit because this is one way to encourage tourism, by providing clean and healthy airport environments.

Thank you for providing a healthy environment for all and for fulfilling your duty under CSC MC 17, s. 2009.

Sincerely,

Dr. Yul Dorotheo

Comments re P-Noy's SONA

Image by thepocnews via Flickr

Thoughts on the State of the Nation Address of President Benigno S. Aquino III



A related news article reports that many lawmakers and politicians were not surprised by some of the revelations of governmental anomalies bared by President Aquino in his first State of the Nation Address.  Does that mean that these seasoned politicians and legislators knew about these problems and did not or could not do anything about them, either to prevent them or correct them?  What have they been and are in power for?  Surely, it is to serve the Filipino people's interests and not their own (smirk and rolling eyes).


I agree that not many solutions were offered in the SONA, but identifying the problems is the first step towards their proper resolution.  The added value of these revelations, allegations as some would call them, is that they come under public scrutiny, and the common people become involved in the way government conducts business, not just the politicians and the bureaucrats, but also the people they swore to serve.  Transparency as a key message and the basis for good governance came across quite clearly.


There were also some pretty concrete actions the president promised that his administration would undertake.  Let's see if he will make good on them.  This is why I copied his speech into my blog, as a yardstick that he created for himself and the bureaucracy.  Also, while his SONA did not cover a whole range of issues (environment, agrarian reform, brain drain and migration, etc.), we should expect that all issues will be addressed in the coming months, and reported on after his first 100 days in office.  


The president should be cautioned however about private-public partnerships, especially when these involve the tobacco industry.  The primary goal of big business is to make big profits, as much as they can make, and quite often they will fight government regulation as much as they can, or in the words of Philip Morris, they will claim to support "sensible regulation", which is just another way of saying "regulation that benefits us, even if it is bad for government or bad for the public". 


Very recently, the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Health jointly issued Memorandum Circular No. 2010-001 protecting the bureaucracy from tobacco industry interference. This issuance covers all national and local government agencies, bureaus, departments, government-owned and controlled corporations and state colleges and universities under the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Commission.  Full text in PDF format is available at this link: CSC-DOH JMC 2010-01.pdf

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