Tobacco Free Emerging Kerala

The Emerging Kerala Summit that concluded at Kochi on 14 September 2012 made news for various things - from participation from 51 countries to a presence of globally acclaimed thought-leaders who could  articulate and give specific recommendations on Kerala's development agenda. 

The meet which saw participation of over 4500 delegates also brought cheer to public health and tobacco control activities in the state, for stringently following the COTPA's provisions on prohibition of smoking in public places. 

The Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008 under Section 4 of COTPA has comprehensively laid out the various aspects of the prohibition on public places.

The Act defines ‘public place’ as any place to which the public has access whether as of right or not and includes all places visited by general public and includes hotels, restaurants, auditoriums, health institutions, hospital buildings, bus stops and amusement centres.

In keeping with the Kerala Government's proactive stance on tobacco control, the Emerging Kerala meet had specially hired trained detectives from Bangalore to keep an eye over smokers and drug addicts at the venue.