Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) President SM Mohamed Idris said there should be no designated smoking areas in the state.

He was responding to Wednesday’s announcement by executive councillor Phee Boon Poh that the state planned to punish smokers in the George Town World Heritage Site by making them wear “Thank you for not smoking” vests or jackets and patrol the streets.

Idris told FMT the state government should aim to make Penang an entirely smoke-free state.

“We should not have any designated smoking areas as we will still see the surrounding air being polluted.

“Kerala in India does not allow smoking in public. CAP’s stand is that there should be a total ban on smoking in public,” he said.

Molly Cheah, the President of the Malaysia Council for Tobacco Control, said she was “delighted” to hear of the plan.

“Some people think that they can flout the rules by simply paying a fine,” she said.

The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) welcomed the move as a boon for the tourism industry.

Matta President Hamzah Rahmat said any move geared towards encouraging a healthy lifestyle would be good for tourism. “People want to go to healthy places,” he added.

He said he was confident that the authorities would use common sense in enforcing the rules, especially when applying them to foreign tourists.

“I am sure they will be understanding towards those who may not be familiar with the rules, and be more lenient for the first offence.”

In his statement on Wednesday, Phee explained that the authorities would set the value of offenders’ time at RM50 per hour.

For example, he said, if the fine is RM300, then an offender could opt to pay part of it in cash and part in community service, but every offender would have to do at least an hour of community service.