Cigarette producers may have to remind smokers that their products not only cause cancer, heart disease, impotency and pregnancy disorders, but also dismissal.

Bekasi regency administration has punished six civil servants by relocating them from their current posts to less prestigious government agencies after they were found smoking in front of the regent’s office.

One of the penalized government employees, Nanang Hadi, told kompas.com he had been told to leave the Regional Environment Management Agency, but was not informed where to go.

“We smoked outside the regent’s office as we were waiting for the weekly flag raising ceremony last Monday,“ Nanang said Saturday.

The other errant employees are Encep Supriyadi, Kasimin anf Ade Sofyan from the Integrated License Service Agency and two employees at the Regional Development Planning Agency.

Nanang said regional administration secretary Dadang Mulyadi summoned him and the other five employees after the ceremony and told them of the punitive measures.

Dadang defended the tough policy, saying the regional administration had declared government offices non-smoking zones. “We communicate the regulation each weekly ceremony and through our public order officers,” he said.