Korea has begun to pay serious attention to its heavy smoking culture. The government recently prohibited smoking by drivers and passengers in taxis at all times and has applied stricter rules on the habit for big buildings and public facilities, while at the same time conducting an awareness campaign.

Professor PARK Jae-gahb (picture on the right) at SNU Hospital is one of the leaders in this go-cold-turkey campaign who has dedicated his life to pursuing a nationwide smoking ban.

Park has successfully pushed the Armed Forces post exchanges to stop selling cheap tax-free cigarettes. Boot camp is often cited as the main place where men pick up the habit of smoking.

Scenes showing smoking or advertisements are now banded in TV dramas and newspapers, respectively. There are no smoking areas in the National Assembly and Cheong Wa Dae bans smoking inside its buildings.

The expansion of the no-smoking drive is closely tied to Park's campaign. At the age of 63, he still speaks publicly more than 100 times a year about how cigarettes harm the human body.

"I believe that more than 5 million people worldwide and 50,000 in Korea die every year from diseases derived from smoking. Cigarettes contain more than 62 harmful chemicals that cause cancers and various other illnesses," Park said.

Over the legal battle between lung cancer patients and their families on one side and tobacco manufacturer KT&G on the other, Park said he is optimistic.

"There are research results proving that smoking is involved as a cause in 85 percent of lung cancer cases," he said.

Park, who is one of the nation's top surgeons for colon cancer, said he had seen many patients suffering from the side effects of smoking, and that he was shocked over the lack of public knowledge about the harmful effects.

He blamed the government for being a"malevolent bystander" in cigarette sales."It is like legalizing the distribution of addictive substances. If anything else caused the annual death of 50,000 people, it would be worthy of a state of emergency," he said.

Park has appealed to the National Assembly with no avail to implement a law banning production and distribution of cigarettes."But I will press on the issue till the number of smokers drops to less than 500,000 - then the government will have to make a list of them and manage them individually," he said.

Currently, there are an estimated 8 million smokers in Korea, according to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.

Nov. 20, 2009
SNU PR Office