Smoking in public will be denounced via mobile app

On the morning of May 6, the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment (Ministry of Health) held a workshop to implement the project plan “Strengthening the implementation of the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms through pilot model of mobilizing community participation at the district level and replicate it nationwide”.

At this morning’s seminar in Hanoi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue – Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Administration, Ministry of Health informed about the inspection, inspection and handling of administrative violations at locations. no smoking.

Accordingly, 2019-2020, the authorities inspected 1,927 units/facility, sanctioned 376 cases of tobacco-free environment problems in accordance with the Law, with a fine of 563.9 million copper. In 2021, the Ministry of Public Security organized 15 inspections at 599 units, sanctioning 15 violations with a fine of 120 million VND. In addition, the inspection of the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Tobacco Harms is also integrated with the inspection of food safety, social order and safety, fire and explosion prevention…

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khue, although the inspection and sanctioning of administrative violations in this field have had many changes, the results have not been as expected due to many limitations such as the lack of inspection force. Inspectors at all levels have not really paid attention to the inspection and examination of the prevention of tobacco harms.

Meanwhile, the rate of tobacco use among men is still high (in 2020, the rate of smoking among men is 42.3%, women are 1.7%), the rate of exposure to tobacco smoke. still high in some places such as restaurants, hotels, bars, coffee…; Tobacco is widely used and sold…

In order to more effectively implement the regulations on smoke-free environment, the Tobacco Smoke Prevention and Control Fund built the VN0khoithuoc software application on mobile phones.

The application was born to promote the role of the people and take advantage of the community’s power to detect cases of violations of regulations on places where smoking is prohibited. The software has two applications: an application for the complainant to record videos/photographs of violations and send them to the authorities, and an application for the authorities to receive and process information. reflect.

The process of reflecting, receiving and processing is done through the functions of the mobile-app software and the management website application. Users do this by downloading it for free on the Apple Store and CH Play.

The main functions of the reporting application include reporting violations; vote for locations that well comply with regulations on smoke-free environment; provide information on events, regulations of law on prevention and control of tobacco harms. In which, information about the reflected violation includes: infringing images; name and address of the place of violation; type of violation basis…

People’s feedback will be received and processed by the district People’s Committee and transferred to the commune/ward level where the violation is located. The competent authorities receive, process, and at the same time return the results to the people to monitor and supervise the handling process.

According to the Medical Examination and Treatment Administration, the software will be piloted in two districts of Hoan Kiem and Tay Ho (Hanoi) in 2022.

Many parts of the world have also built applications for mobile phones to report law violations in general and violations related to tobacco harms prevention in particular. Applications in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and some Indian states are built and operated by the Ministry of Health of the countries and are connected directly to law enforcement agencies.

A number of reviews show that these apps are effective tools to raise public awareness of tobacco harms violations. Applications are especially relevant in urban cities, where access to the internet is convenient and suitable for young people.

Ngoc Trang