Press Releases
SHWF on passage of anti-smoking law
Following is a transcript of the remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for
Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at the
Legislative Council Building today (October 19):
Dr Chow: This is a historic moment for both our community as well as for myself.
To have this Smoking Ordinance enacted is one of my biggest ambitions since I
took up the position as Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food. I would like to
thank all my staff who have worked very hard to get the work done and also thank
the legislators and Bills Committee members for their dedicated work and for
their achievement in getting this well-balanced ordinance that is suitable for
Hong Kong. The special feature of this Ordinance is: it is perhaps, the most
widely controlled smoking areas in the world in terms of the various public
areas on top of our indoor spaces. The objective is, of course, firstly, to
ensure that we have cut down or completely avoided any second hand smoking;
secondly, is to give a very clear message to the public that the space for them
to smoke is decreasing progressively in the years to come. My message to the
public is: this is the time to quit smoking.
Reporter: The Government has unexpectedly U-turned on its previous position on
smoking room, was that politically aspired?
Dr Chow: Definitely not. First of all, we have no position on the smoking room
for some time. The concept of smoking room differs in different sectors. There
are people who think that the smoking room is a place where you can smoke, enjoy
the food as well as other activities. The proposal that I have now, we haven't
decided, and that we would like to investigate, is to find a room that might be
able to allow people to smoke but would not allow any services or any other
activities, something very much like those in the airport. Whether this is
technologically and scientifically proven, and also technically feasible, then
we have to investigate. We have no conclusion yet but I believe that after a
year or two, we would be able to decide whether something is feasible or not.
Reporter: Why bother?
Dr Chow: The reason is: if you look at the banned areas now, a lot of people, in
particular smokers, would be forced to smoke on the street. Knowing that Hong
Kong is such a densely populated area, we might encounter a lot of smokers in
certain areas. If we could allow them to smoke in a confined space rather than
disturbing the pedestrians and non-smokers, then we would be able to more
successfully segregate the smokers and the non-smokers. So, that is the main
reason why we think that we need to look at this problem. We have no conclusion
yet. We have no decision on whether this is feasible yet. I think we should
spend some time to look at this.
Reporter: You haven��t explained why you bring this (smoking room) up on the
final day? Why not bring this idea before�K you were against this idea a few
months ago?
Dr Chow: We were against the idea because technologically and social
scientifically there were no world standard on the so-called smoking room. And
everyone, including every legislator, has a slightly different concept of what a
smoking room is like. And that is the reason why we think that if we have so
many banned areas in Hong Kong, we have to foresee that if there are certain
areas and certain districts that might have a lot of smokers smoking on the
street, and disturbing and causing nuisance to other pedestrians and
non-smokers, then we have to see would there be a better way in solving the
problem?
Reporter: What is the difference between now and a couple of months ago?
Dr Chow: A couple of months ago, most of the suggestions on smoking room is for
a smoking room that can allow other activities to be taken place inside. We
cannot allow that to happen because when you have other services in the
so-called smoking room, it's bound to have workers coming in, so this is
something that we would not be able to accept.
Reporter: (Tobacco diaphragm)
Dr Chow: This is not a tobacco diaphragm as what you have said. The main purpose
of our ordinance is to prevent second-hand smoking. You can see that in the
airport, we have the same thing. In many other areas, also there are segregation
of areas for smokers. We cannot refute all the smokers. We don't want to do
that. We want to give them time so that they can quit smoking. I think that is
the reason why we think that if Hong Kong is such a densely populated place, if
there are people who need to smoke in the street, would there be a better way of
addressing them? So, maybe a smoking room would segregate the smokers from the
non-smokers and also exhausting air will be pumped well above the crowd. And
then it may be able to solve the problem.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Dr Chow: I have explained it earlier on. We have discussed it many times. There
is no conclusion in previous meetings.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Dr Chow: From January 1 next year.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Dr Chow: I think this law has many areas of smoking ban. We need to educate the
public and not to look at it as if everything should be done by the Government
and also the enforcement agency. So, I think it is very important. In many other
countries, the success of the enforcement does not hinge on the Government, but
by the peer pressure of non-smokers. Whenever they see someone light up the
cigarette, they should say: "it is a non-smoking area, would you please stop!"
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Thursday, October 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 21:14
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