Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ2: Promote smoke-free messages among young people
Following is a question by the Hon Bernard Chan and a written reply by the
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council
today (March 16):
Question:
The Government plans to amend the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance in order to
expand no-smoking areas and tighten the control over the advertisement and
promotion of tobacco products. However, apart from designating schools as
no-smoking areas, no other measures against young smokers and for preventing
young people from picking up the smoking habit have been drawn up in the
proposed amendments. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council
whether:
(a) it will consider increasing the tobacco duty to push up cigarette prices so
as to resolve the problem of young people smoking and prevent them from picking
up the smoking habit; and
(b) it will strengthen its efforts in banning smoking targeted at young people,
such as establishing funds to finance voluntary and non-government organizations
in carrying out their work in preventing young people from smoking?
Reply:
Madam President,
In line with the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the
Administration has adopted a comprehensive approach to youth smoking prevention,
featuring a mix of legislative, economic, public education and smoking cessation
measures.
On the legislative front, there are numerous provisions in the Smoking (Public
Health) Ordinance ("the Ordinance") that seek to restrict access to tobacco
products by young people. The major ones concern (i) prohibition of sale of
cigarettes by retailers to minors; (ii) prohibition of sale of cigarettes
individually; and (iii) prohibition of sale of tobacco products from vending
machines. To reduce the costs and hazards of smoking and secondhand smoking to
our community, we will shortly introduce a bill to the Legislative Council to
amend the Ordinance. Apart from the designation of schools as no-smoking areas,
the following legislative initiatives will help promote a smokefree environment
that discourages smoking by young people.
- strengthening the powers of the Tobacco Control Office to bring about more
effective enforcement of the Ordinance;
- banning smoking in indoor public places frequented by teenagers such as
restaurants, karaokes and discos;
- enhancing the deterrent effect of government warnings on cigarette packets by
prescribing warnings with pictorial and graphical contents; and
- removing current exemptions on the display of tobacco advertisements at
licensed hawker stalls and small retail shops.
Education is another essential component of our strategy to tackle youth
smoking. The Education and Manpower Bureau has incorporated anti-smoking
messages into routine health programmes and educational materials for primary
and secondary schools. The Department of Health (DH) runs health programmes in
secondary schools regularly to improve the psychosocial health of adolescents
through training on life skills and resilience building. The harms of smoking
and the skills to prevent the formation of smoking habits are disseminated
through such training activities. Separately, the Hong Kong Council on Smoking
and Health (COSH) has been promoting smoke-free messages among primary and
secondary school students through educational activities such as anti-smoking
dramas.
To complement the legislative exercise to make indoor workplaces and public
places smokefree, we will continue to invest in public education and publicity
activities to promote "no-smoking" as the community norm. Apart from allocations
to government departments and COSH, we will provide financial support to
voluntary and non-government agencies to conduct anti-smoking activities,
including those on youth smoking prevention, through the Health Care and
Promotion Fund and the Health and Health Services Research Found. In this
connection, we will liaise with the Grant Committee/Council of these Funds to
set tobacco control as one of the thematic priorities for the coming years.
On smoking cessation, through DH's chest clinics and the smoking cessation and
counseling centres operated by the Hospital Authority, we have been providing
quit-smoking services to persons in need including young smokers. The services
provided include medical assessment, counseling, drug therapy and health
education. To cope with the anticipated rise in demand for smoking cessation, DH
will implement a number of new initiatives in 2005 including computerization of
the cessation hotline to increase the number of concurrent service recipients
and interactive dissemination of cessation information through the Internet.
We recognize that economic measures are effective and important means to reduce
tobacco consumption by various segments of the population, in particular young
persons. Over the years, the Government has progressively increased the tobacco
duty for cigarettes, which is now more than half of their retail prices in
general. The Administration will continue to keep under review whether
adjustments to the tobacco duties should be made, having regard to the
implications of further duty increases on illegal tobacco activities and the
effectiveness of legislative, publicity and public education measures to curb
smoking.
Ends/Wednesday, March 16, 2005
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