Build smoking rooms near bus-stops and train stations

There is constant conflict between smokers and non-smokers over smoking in public (Passengers should be able to choose smoke-free cabs; May 23).

While the law stipulates certain places such as bus-stops and Housing and Development Board void decks as smoke-free, there are smokers who light up in these areas.

To ask for full enforcement of the law would be counterproductive and impossible to achieve.

Other antisocial acts associated with smoking in public are spitting and littering cigarette butts, which can be a potential fire hazard.

I suggest that smoking be confined to air-conditioned rooms equipped with an air filtration facility.

Smokers would be able to smoke comfortably without incurring the wrath of non-smokers, who in turn would be able to breathe fresh air wherever they go.

A pilot programme could be initiated in the Central Business District, Orchard Road and near bus-stops at major MRT stations.

The costs of building and maintaining these smoking rooms would be funded by higher tobacco taxes.

If the programme is successful, it could be expanded islandwide eventually. Once it is implemented fully, anyone caught lighting up outside the designated rooms would be deemed to have flouted the law.