A majority of people agree with new restrictions imposed under the 2017 Tobacco Control Act, including the prohibition against selling cigarettes to people under 20 years of age, according to the result of an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was carried out on July 5-7 on 1,250 people throughout the country after the 2017 Tobacco Control Act took effect on July 4.
The stricter law is intended to keep children from picking up the habit as well as to protect the health of non-smokers.
On the prohibition against selling cigarettes to people under 20 years of age - raising the minimum legal age for buying cigarettes to 20 - a majority of respondents, 89.68%, agree to it while only 9.28% disagree.
Over 82% of the respondents agree with the ban on people under 18 years old from selling cigarettes.
A huge majority - 91.20% - agree with the prohibition of sales of cigarettes in temples or places reserved for religious rites; hospitals, medical facilities and pharmacies; education institutes; and public parks, amusement parks and zoos. Only 7.60% disagree.
A majority of people also agree with the ban on all forms of advertising of tobacco products (87.12%); the ban on tobacco firms using indirect advertisements via corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities (73.28%); the prohibition of displays of tobacco products at retail shops (81.92%); and increasing the maximum penalty to 5,000 baht for smoking in non-smoking zones (84.88%).
Asked whether they believe the new Tobacco Control Act would help prevent children and youths from taking up the smoking habit, only 18.08% said it would be very effective; 50.56% said it would be fairly effective; and 25.84% said it would not be effective at all.