The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Health Promotion Administration on Wednesday defended a ban on smoking in national parks set to take effect next year, saying that subjecting people to second-hand smoke was a violation of their basic human rights.
The administration was responding to a pro-smoking group’s accusation that restricting smokers from lighting up in national parks was unconstitutional.
Chen Shao-ting (陳紹庭), chairman of the organizing committee of the Taiwan Smoker Rights Promotion Association, said the health ministry has overstepped its legal authority by banning smoking in national parks as of April 1.
“Why not just call yourself the Garrison Command of Health and Welfare, instead of the Ministry of Health and Welfare?” Chen quipped.
Feng Tsung-yi (馮宗蟻), a section chief at the agency, said it was a matter of public interest for people to have the right to breathe fresh air and ensuring that they can is part of the government’s duty.
“If you expose the majority of the people to an environment full of secondhand smoke, that would be a violation of their basic human rights,” he said.
In addition, the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) stipulates that smokers should be separated from non-smokers in public places, he said.
Smoking advocates and lobbyists for cigarette vendors are the ones who are violating the public interest and acting unconstitutionally, he said.
Other administration officials said the government has been trying to extend no-smoking zones to pedestrian crossings, where smokers often light up while waiting for traffic lights to change.
The agency has not made a final decision on banning smoking at pedestrian crossings because such areas fall under the jurisdiction of local governments, they said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
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