The Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill 2019 will be voted in the Legislative Council next Wednesday (20th). It is expected that the development of alternative cigarettes in Hong Kong will be formally restricted.
Legislative Council Member Tian Beichen called on the public to support legislation to completely ban alternative cigarettes, and pointed out that smoking cessation and smoking ban not only benefit smokers, but also benefit people around them.
According to the thematic household survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department from April to July 2019, it was found that 691,500 people aged 15 and over who had smoked at the time of the survey, accounting for 11.1% of the Hong Kong population, compared to 10.8% in 2017 There was a slight increase. Among the smokers, 63.3% said they did not want to quit smoking unintentionally.
More and more smokers in society will increase social costs. Promoting a total ban on smoking with appropriate policies is undoubtedly what the government should do.
After the government started to increase tobacco taxes in 2011, there was no significant increase in tobacco taxes in the following ten years. The Food and Health Bureau submitted the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill 2019 to the Legislative Council in 2019. The main purpose of the policy is to encourage the public not to smoke, to curb the widespread use of tobacco, and to reduce the impact of second-hand smoke on the public, so as to protect public health.
Alternative smoking products include e-cigarettes, heating non-combustion tobacco products and herbal cigarettes, and the bill’s recommendations for these products include: prohibiting import, manufacture, sale, distribution and promotion.
The choice between regulation and restriction
After the proposal to regulate alternative smoking products was put forward to the Health Services Committee, it received strong opposition from the medical profession, education sector, parents and the general public to adopt a regulatory model to control alternative cigarettes.
In fact, the entire motion did not mention the need to "ban" the use of alternative cigarettes in smoking areas or private outdoor places. It simply proposed restrictions on the alternative cigarette market, while ignoring the restriction on the use of alternative cigarettes itself, which seems to be effective in reducing the use of alternative cigarettes. The number of smokers of alternative cigarettes is questionable. On the contrary, it has the opportunity to increase the black market value of related consumer products.
Three results can be expected for a complete ban on the use of alternative cigarettes, namely, alternative smokers quit smoking, illegally purchase alternative cigarettes or switch to legal tobacco, which is not entirely feasible.
Therefore, after excluding this option, instead of choosing a "partial restriction" model to curb the production and import of alternative cigarettes, the government can actually consider adopting a "overall regulation" model to deal with the issue of alternative cigarettes by importing, manufacturing, and selling. And the distribution is fully regulated by the government, and at the same time, it cooperates with the prohibition of publicity and then prohibits its use in all public places in order to obtain the effect of control.
A total smoking ban must have a plan
In fact, the real focus of the current discussion on smoking should be how to strike a balance. It is necessary to effectively suppress the growth of the smoking population while avoiding counterproductive effects. If the policy is implemented in a "one size fits all" type of high pressure, it will have the opportunity to increase the incentives for tobacco smuggling and report countermeasures. Trafficking caused a serious blow.
For overall social development, the government cannot only take short-term measures, but must have a long-term blueprint for how to reform.
As the Associate Professor of the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong, Ho Shixian, pointed out in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" earlier, the government should take this opportunity to formulate a long-term blueprint so that Hong Kong will achieve a total ban on smoking in 10 years.
Tobacco control helps reduce mortality. Members should not make Hong Kong people save lives. Tobacco control is not just a method of tobacco tax. Can the separation of heating cigarettes be passed faster?
