Tobacco.org

• Regional monks move to ban smoking 

Moves are afoot to ban cigarette smoking among Buddhist monks in Thailand and provide them with advice on how to kick the habit, following a three-nation seminar on Buddhism and tobacco control which concluded that tobacco was an addictive substance and thus violated the five core Buddhist principles.

The 2nd Seminar on Buddhism and the Control of Tobacco Consumption ratified the resolution of the 1st seminar, held in 2003, which described tobacco as an addictive substance harmful to health. Tobacco, according to the seminar, not only had a negative effect on personal health, the economy and society, but also ran counter to the five core principles which every Buddhist, whether monk or layperson, should follow.

Reporting on the seminar, Dr. Naowarat Charoenkha, assistant dean for international relations and training from Mahidol University's Faculty of Public Health, said that this would necessitate a programme to encourage monks and prospective ordinands to break their cigarette habit, as well as a drive to make temples into tobacco-free zones.

According to a year-long study of smoking among Thai monks, conducted by researchers from Mahidol and Rangist universities, found that 24.4 percent of monks and novices across the country were smokers. This figure concealed huge regional disparities, rising as high as 40.5 percent in the eastern and central regions, while dropping to only 14.6 percent in the north.

A recent study in Cambodia, meanwhile, suggested that 36 percent of its monks are smokers. Although no clear evidence on smoking among monks has yet emerged from Laos, the Laotian delegates to the seminar emerged equally committed to the idea of tobacco control.

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