By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

The Constitutional Court has ruled the law that prohibits people from smoking inside public buildings is constitutional, emphasizing that the freedom and rights of individuals can be limited for the good of public health and welfare.

The court has put the right of non-smokers above that of smokers, saying that smoking in public buildings violates the basic rights of non-smokers to protect their health and life.

The ruling was made public Friday after the court’s nine-member panel reviewed whether the law on the promotion of public health, which bans smoking inside schools, hospitals and other public buildings, is in line with the Constitution.

Last July, a smoking citizen filed a petition with the court, claiming the health promotion law overrules the rights of smokers.

In the petition, he claimed cigarettes can be a good stress-reliever for smokers, and smoking is a matter of choice for individuals. He also claimed cigarettes play a positive role in the local economy, saying more than 30 percent of local authorities’ budget originates in taxes imposed on cigarettes.

The law states the owner or manager of a public building can designate it as a smoke-free building and ban smoking by anybody in their building. For smokers, the owner can set up a smoking section in his building, but it is not mandatory.

The government has tightened measures against smokers. In July, the Ministry of Health and Welfare implement a revised health promotion law requiring cigarette sellers to add a device to vending machines that can recognize buyers’ ages from their ID cards or credit cards to protect minors from purchasing cigarettes.

A legal dispute has continued over the effect of smoking after six lung cancer patients and 37 of their family members filed compensation suits with the Seoul Central District Court against the government and tobacco companies in 1999.

Last week, the Korean government was accused of having refused to release research results linking smoking to lung cancer for the past decade in order to keep sales high.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr