A new law in Thailand has classified smoking in the home as an act of domestic violence. The law makes it illegal for smokers to indulge their habit if other family members are present. The legislation is aimed at cutting rates of asthma in children, reducing lung cancer from second-hand smoke, and bringing down the number of smokers by thirty percent in the next 6 years. Those who can't kick the habit are feeling the pressure to quit.

After a long day at work, this is how Apichat takes a moment to relax. But now, even these quiet moments are soon to be stolen from him.

He's a heavy smoker and under Thailand's new law, is banned from smoking in his own home.

He understands why he can't smoke in public, and that the price of his cigarettes has doubled in recent year, but this is a bit too much. And he feels that current legislation has persecuted smokers so much they have nowhere to hide.

APICHAT SIEWSIKORN "They don't want us to smoke inside, I can't smoke outside either. We're not allowed to smoke in any public place so where else are we supposed to go? There must be a certain place where we can smoke freely."

He shares a house with his sister in law and her family. She is an ardent anti-smoker and is acutely aware of the damage caused by second-hand smoke. But they've never had a problem accommodating his habit and keeping it away from the kids.

SAMAI BOONCHERD MOTHER "If I have some people in the family smoking, then I have to say no, you can't smoke inside the house."

Q: "But you wouldn't want to see anyone go to jail for smoking?"

A: "No no no."

There are 11 millions smokers in Thailand, that's nearly twenty percent of the population. And deaths from smoking-related illnesses are now more than four hundred thousand a year.

But this change in the law is aimed at protecting those who live with smokers, particularly women and children, whose chance of getting lung cancer increases 24 percent by inhaling second-hand smoke.

But how will the law be enforced? Will the police be moving through suburban neighbourhoods sniffing under doors?

DR. DONNACHAI KONGSAKON PRESIDENT, MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THAILAND "We don't have any idea to stop smoking in the family, we just say that for the safety of the members of your family, please try to be aware."

Q: "So this is more of a guidance?" 

A: "Yes, that's right."

TONY CHENG BANGKOK "It's pretty hard to be a Thai smoker these days. Cigarettes prices have increased dramatically, smoking's banned in restaurant's shopping malls and now the final indignity, you can't even smoke in your own home, so the sensible decision would probably be to just quit. Tony Cheng CGTN Bangkok."