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Bills Committee on Fixed Penalty (Smoking Offences) Bill

May 3rd, 2008
by AdminCTA.
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The following was submitted to LegCo Bills Committee on the 3rd May 2008

25 April 2008

Legislative Council Secretariat
Legislative Council
Hong Kong

Dear Sirs

Re: Bills Committee on Fixed Penalty (Smoking Offences) Bill

We hereby submit our views on the above as follows:

  1. We strongly support the proposals on fixed penalty and we urge the Legislative Council to adopt them as soon as possible, with no more delay. We understand there is strong support from the public.
  2. Whereas such measures can facilitate better and more efficient enforcement of the law, and can send a strong message to those smokers who have been non-compliant, we emphasise that most of the smokers do comply.
  3. The major loophole in the present law is that owners and management personnel of premises with prohibition of smoking by the law are not required by law to ensure that smoking is not allowed in their premises. This has created much difficulties for law enforcing agencies who can only prosecute the smokers who have violated the law, but not the management at all. We urge the Legislative Council and the Government to review this important loophole and to examine the relevant laws in many other countries, including the UK, which require the premise owners and management to ensure that smoking is prohibited in their premises and are liable to prosecution and penalty if they do not comply. We recommend the law be amended accordingly.
  4. The introduction of prohibition of smoking in many public places since 1 January 2007 has not been accompanied by major quitting campaigns with expansion of smoking cessation support services. Hence, we have already missed one golden opportunity to cut down tobacco consumption and increase the quit rate.
  5. The current emphasis on prohibition of smoking and law enforcement and penalty for noncompliance is not adequate to increase quitting, reduce smoking and the related health problems and economic costs to our community. There must be parallel, regular and intensive campaigns on quitting to motivate more smokers to quit smoking, and to encourage nonsmokers to support their smoking relatives and friends to quit. There must be easily and widely accessible and affordable smoking cessation support services, such as quitline, smoking cessation clinics, nicotine replacement therapy and other drugs for smoking cessation, to help as many smokers to quit as quickly as possible. All these measures have been shown to be the most cost effective interventions in improving health and saving health care costs.
  6. This time, we must not miss another golden opportunity from the new measure of fixed penalty. There should always be two hands coming from the Government to the smokers: one hand to say no to smoking, and the other to say yes, we are ready to help you quit.
  7. Heavy government subsidies are needed especially for many smokers who cannot afford the costs of such services or therapies. Such provision of free or low cost smoking cessation services have also been shown to be effective and cost effective in Hong Kong, and are acceptable to many smokers. Many health care professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and social workers have been trained by us at the University of Hong Kong in providing more specialised smoking cessation counselling. They need to be supported by giving them dedicated time and resources so that they can fully utilise their skills to benefit as many smokers as possible. Strong government support and adequate funding are needed for sustained publicity campaigns and smoking cessation services, and such will be good investment, not only in reducing health care costs both short and long term, and can reduce health inequality.
  8. We are very disappointed the tobacco tax has not been raised for many years. The cheap price of cigarettes is a disincentive to quitting and an incentive to greater cigarette consumption and to smoking among young people and children. We urge the Government to introduce a tobacco levy to support the campaigns on and services for smoking cessation.

Yours sincerely
________________________ ________________________
Professor TH Lam
Head
Department of Community Medicine

Professor Sophia Chan
Head Head
Department of Nursing Studies

AMA Push For Tobacco Licence Scheme

Apr 28th, 2008
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The Age – Marc Moncrief – April 28, 2008

MILK bars, supermarkets and petrol stations are among business that would be subject to a new licence under a plan to harvest more than $20 million for the state from the sale of tobacco.

The Australian Medical Association, in its submission to the state budget, suggests the sale of tobacco should be licensed by the state. It suggests a licensing fee of $1000, to be increased by $250 a year.

“Vendors which currently sell small amounts of tobacco would baulk at the cost of a licence to sell tobacco, and would remove themselves from the market,” the submission says. “Small-volume tobacco vendors often are the only choices available after hours, at convenience stores and service stations. Some of these vendors would prefer to forgo the limited sales they have from tobacco than pay a licence fee.”

Australian Retailers Association executive director Richard Evans said that the initiative might be well intentioned but probably would not work. Mr Evans said it was likely that cigarette companies would pay licence fees and help retailers with compliance as part of supply arrangements.

The Best Way To Quit Smoking?

Apr 1st, 2008
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Bangkok – Higher taxes on tobacco are the most effective way for governments to combat the health and social costs of smoking, experts attending a World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting said on Tuesday.

“Higher taxes on tobacco lead to higher prices for tobacco products, which immediately discourage non-smokers from starting and current smokers from continuing with the habit,” said Bungon Ritthiphakdee, director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance.

That conclusion was shared by other experts and government officials attending this week’s meeting in Bangkok on WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The World Bank recommended that governments impose taxes above 65 percent, which is the level, according to studies, at which smoking goes down but government tax revenues from the tobacco industry continue to go up.

Thailand, which boasts some of the most progressive anti-smoking policies in Southeast Asia, is a case in point.

“Between 1993 and 2007, Thailand increased tobacco taxes eight times, from 55 percent to 80 percent,” said Dr Paiboon Wattanasiritham, former chairperson of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. “The number of packs sold decreased from 2,1 million packs in 1993 to 1,9 million packs in 2007.”

“And yet, as cigarette sales tumbled, tax revenue from these sales rose from 15-billion baht ($484-million) in 1993 to 41-billion baht in 2007,” the doctor added. – Sapa-dpa

Published on the Web by IOL on 2008-04-01 09:01:42

China Seizes 9 Billion Counterfeit Cigarettes In 2007

Jan 16th, 2008
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China seizes 9 bln counterfeit cigarettes in 2007 – ChinaView

BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — A total of 9.28 billion counterfeit cigarettes were seized nationwide in 2007, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) announced here on Wednesday.

Law enforcement agencies raided 3,876 counterfeit cigarette warehouses and rounded up 7,026 people in connection with the false brands, prosecuting 3,492 people, said STMA head Jiang Chengkang.

He added law enforcement agencies also solved 5,505 cases, each of which involved more than 50,000 yuan (about 6,906 U.S. dollars). Among those, 49 cases were valued at more than ten million yuan.

In 2006, the country seized 9.07 billion counterfeit cigarettes and cracked 24 major cases. Each were valued at more than ten million yuan and resulted in the prosecution of 2,313 people.

China’s tobacco industry generated 388 billion yuan in taxes and profits last year, a 25 percent year-on-year increase, according to the STMA.

By calculation, tobacco industry taxes and profits will account for about eight percent of the country’s fiscal revenue in 2007.

Wisconsin’s Cigarette Tax Inspires Many To Quit.

Jan 10th, 2008
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Jan 10, 2008 11:32 AM (1 day ago) AP

MADISON, Wis. (Map, News) – The increase in Wisconsin’s cigarette tax seems to have inspired many to quit.

The week after the tax went up, the state’s tobacco quit line received as many calls as it got all of last year. Nine-thousand people called the toll-free line in the first week of January. Usually only about 200 people a week call the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line.

The cigarette tax increased by US$1 per pack on Jan. 1.

On New Year’s Day, the tax for a pack of cigarettes in Wisconsin increased by $1. Wisconsin residents are now paying $1.77 in taxes for a single pack of cigarettes. The tax on a single pack of cigarettes in Michigan is $2. Maureen Busalacchi, executive director for SmokeFree Wisconsin, said the organization estimates 33,000 adults will quit for good because of this tax increase.

Thousands of people are calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW looking to quit, she said. The demand for quitting is high, and two-week starter kits of medication are being offered to help smokers kick the habit.

“With the support people are getting from the quit line, hopefully, that number will be higher but that is our projection,” Busalacchi said. Wisconsin has a population of 5.5 million, and there are 900,000 smokers in the dairy state.(HK has 7 million population and 840,000 smokers hence the comparison)

A smoker usually does not quit the first time he or she tries. “The more you quit, the better you get at it. If you’re not successful, try again because your success rate increases,” Busalacchi said. Among carcinogens and other harmful chemicals, cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly-addictive substance. “Your brain is calling for this,” Busalacchi said. “We should support (people) and help them so they can be successful in quitting.” Busalacchi said Smoke Free Wisconsin was one of the biggest proponents of this tax increase. “We support it because it is the best way to reduce use from starting a lifetime of 66,000 kids won’t get started smoking because of this tax,” Busalacchi said. “We hope that it exceeds our expectations in the number of people that quit smoking. With health care costs and how much Wisconsin spends a year, that can be nothing but a good thing.”

Wisconsin currently spends $10 million a year for tobacco prevention, according to Smoke Free Wisconsin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the state spend between US$31.2 million and $82.4 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.

Money generated from the increased tax on cigarettes will go into the state’s general fund. “It originally was suppose to go into Medicaid, which is really the best place for taxpayers … we spend over a half a billion dollars in Medicaid treating tobacco related diseases. That is just Medicaid,” Busalacchi said. Wisconsin is the 12th highest taxed state for cigarettes in the nation. Six states have cigarette tax rates of $2 or more with 22 states that have cigarette tax rates of $1 or more. New Jersey is the highest at $2.28 in taxes for a pack of cigarettes.

Smoking Costs Over 6.5% Of National Income To Nations

Dec 6th, 2007
by AdminCTA.
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6 Dec, 2007, 1138 hrs IST, PTI – The Economic Times

NEW YORK: Love for nicotine is weighing heavily on developing nations with top ten smoker countries losing more than $30 billion annually which is more than 6.5 per cent of their gross national income (GNI).

The top ten smokers countries, identified by Forbes magazine include Kenya, Turkey, Namibia, Yemen, Guinea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Mongolia, Nauru and Sao Tome and Principe.

Thanks to celebrity activism and widespread media attention, the magazine notes, HIV, malaria and starvation are well-known diseases of the third world. But there’s another resource-draining plague afflicting these countries – smoking.

While the smoking population is half what it was a generation ago in the US and other industrialised nations, with only one in five using tobacco, it’s different in Africa and East Asia, where time stands still when it comes to cigarettes, it says.

Smoking rates of 40 per cent or more of the population are common in these regions and medical services are limited.

In Turkey, for example, 44 per cent of its 71.5 million population smokes, draining USD 22.4 billion annually which accounts for 5.8 per cent of its GNI of 384.3 billion dollars.

Around 45 per cent of Yemen’s population smokes costing $1 billion to its economy annually and accounts for 6.2 per cent of GNI.

Societal costs in those countries, Forbes says, can’t be calculated the same way they would be in the US, where most studies measure how much smokers burden taxpayers with extra medicare and medicaid payments.

For poor countries, there is no medicare-like programme to fund. Nor is there enough data about the economic impact of other diseases to make real comparisons.

Tom Glynn, Director of International Care Control for the American Cancer Society has been quoted as saying. “In Africa, these health care systems don’t exist, at least not in the form we’re used to,” Only Kenya, he says of Africa’s low income nations, has a medical care system that reasonably resembles that of the western world.

Most studies conclude a cigarette costs 10 minutes of life, so a pack-a-day smoker (20 cigarettes a day) loses 13.9 per cent of a year to the habit over the long haul, the magazine notes.

In Namibia, where half of the country’s two million citizens smoke, the average income is about $3,230 a year, according to the World Bank.

The habit drains about USD 448.61 per year in lost income. Multiplied by just over 1 million smokers, it adds up to $461 million in income losses nationwide, or 6.9 per cent of the country’s $6.6 million total.

The average lifespan in Namibia is 47, meaning that many people are losing a lot of prime earning years. And while smoking is hardly the only reason–low income nations have many variables affecting life expectancy–the habit has always been picked up most heavily by the less well-to-do, adding to the health and earning problems even more, it adds.

Guinea, Kenya, Namibia and Yemen, which together average $1,245 in gross national income per capita, are all among the 10 heaviest smoking countries in the world.

The Gross National Income in Nauru, which tops the list, is $5,000 per capita, of which a smoker can expect to lose an average of $694 over his working life.

Over the full population, the national annual income of $67.6 million would be $5.1 million or 7.5 per cent higher if the 54 per cent of the citizens who smoke didn’t lose a portion of their earning years.

Smoking Costs Hong Kong Over $5 Billion Every Year

Nov 26th, 2007
by AdminCTA.
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A collaborative research project between University of Hong Kong and University of Queensland

School of Public Health Department of Community Medicine University of Hong Kong

The first comprehensive assessment of the costs of tobacco in Asia

Why is this topic important?

  • Smoking tobacco affects the health of the smoker and those around the smoker
  • This effect on health creates costs which are shared by several groups
  • Knowing the extent of these costs and who pays for them is essential information for policy decision-making

View the complete presentation here: http://tobacco.cleartheair.org.hk/documents/tobacco-costs-asia.pdf

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