Govt seeks views on eradicating smoking
Hongkongers are being invited to comment on ideas on how to cut the number of smokers in the city, including punishing children found with cigarettes and a ban on those born after a certain date from ever buying them. Launching a public consultation exercise on the next steps the SAR should take on tobacco control, Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau said around 9.5 percent of residents are smokers and the extra health risks they face pose a heavy burden on the public healthcare system.  "We really want to go for a tobacco-free Hong Kong. Of course, this is the ideal, this is the direction we're driving at," Lo said.  A more immediate goal is to reduce the smoking rate to 7.8 percent by 2025. One suggestion is to follow New Zealand in effectively banning anyone born after a certain date from buying cigarettes.  Another is to not only punish people who sell cigarettes to under 18s, but to penalise anyone who provides them to children – and the children themselves for possessing them. A further suggestion is to ban people from "smoking while walking" on the city's streets. "We list out 14 possible items as possible future policy in reducing the smoking rate, but these are all open to discussion and we welcome everyone in Hong Kong to give us an opinion," Lo said at a press conference. The University of Hong Kong's LKS Faculty of Medicine, in response, welcomed the public consultation. "HKUMed hopes that consensus could be reached through this consultation and the community would be able to address the long-standing public health challenges brought by smoking and see a tobacco-free era arrive as soon as possible," it said in a statement. The consultation exercise will run until the end of September.______________________________
Last updated: 2023-07-12 HKT 22:10 