Clear The Air News Tobacco Blog Rotating Header Image

February 13th, 2012:

Legco Bills Committee on Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2011

The attached will appear on the Legco website

It will also be on our Clear the Air website.

The attached will be discussed by the Bills Subcommittee on 23rd February 2012.

Download PDF : Clear the Air-e

From: frederickyu@fstb.gov.hk [mailto:frederickyu@fstb.gov.hk]
Sent:
Sunday, November 06, 2011 17:05
To:
dynamco@netvigator.com
Cc:
NancyWong@mpfa.org.hkgloriachu@fstb.gov.hkAliceSCTang@mpfa.org.hk
Subject:
Re – MPF

Dear Mr Middleton,

Thank you for your email to the Financial Secretary below which I am authorized to reply.

We have taken the opportunity to consult the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority.  As far as MPF schemes are concerned, investment of funds of MPF schemes is regulated by the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation (collectively the MPF legislation).  To safeguard the accrued benefits of scheme members against undue investment risk, the MPF legislation prescribes a list of permissible investments which are subject to qualitative and quantitative requirements.  There is no specific provision under the current MPF legislation to restrict MPF funds from investing in tobacco stocks provided that the statutory permissibility requirements are met.

Regards,
Frederick Yu
(Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau)

Public bans mean smokers also light up less at home

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/14/us-smoking-bans-idUSTRE81D00N20120214

cid:image001.jpg@01CCECAE.0A9BA960

LONDON | Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:07pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) – Smoking bans in offices, restaurants and other public places don’t drive smokers to light up more at home, but in fact prompt them to impose their own extra restrictions on the habit, according to a European study published Tuesday.

The research, carried out in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, found that a significant proportion of smokers also decided to ban smoking in their own homes after national public smoke-free laws were introduced.

Some opponents of workplace or public smoking bans have argued that smoke-free laws might lead to a displacement of the habit into smokers’ homes, possibly increasing the exposure of non-smokers, particularly children, to second hand smoke.

But Ute Mons of the German Cancer Research Center and the Unit of Cancer Prevention at the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Tobacco Control in Heidelberg, whose work was published in the journal Tobacco Control, said her findings suggested just the opposite.

“On the contrary, our findings demonstrate that smoke-free legislation may stimulate smokers to establish total smoking bans in their homes,” she wrote in the study.

Smoking is known to cause lung cancer, which is often fatal, and other chronic respiratory diseases. It is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the world’s number one killers.

The WHO warned last year that tobacco would kill nearly 6 million people in 2011 including 600,000 non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. It fears the annual tobacco death toll will rise to 8 million by 2030.

Tuesday’s research was based on two surveys conducted in 2003/4 and 2008/9 and involved more than 4,600 smokers in the four countries with smoke-free legislation, as well as 1,080 smokers in Britain which served as comparison country at a time when it had no public smoke-free laws.

Before bans came into force, most smokers had at least partial restrictions on smoking at home, although the proportions varied significantly among all four countries, with the highest levels of restrictions in Germany and France, the researchers found.

But after smoke-free legislation was enacted, the percentage of smokers who banned smoking at home rose by 25 percent in Ireland, 17 percent in France, 38 percent in Germany and 28 percent in the Netherlands, the study showed.

Home smoking bans were more likely to be adopted when the smoker planned to quit the habit, when there was a birth of a child, and when the smoker was someone who had voiced support for a smoking ban in bars.

In raw data terms, the percentage of smokers in Britain who put in place home smoking bans also rose 22 percent between the two surveys, the second of which was carried out just a few months before a smoking ban came into force in the UK.

But after taking account of confounding factors such as demographics and smoking history, the researchers found the percentage of smokers banning smoking at home had increased significantly in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland, but had not significantly increased in the UK.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Smoking ban has led to cut in number of people who light up at home

Smoking ban has led to cut in number of people who light up at home

‎Daily Mail – 10 hours ago

Before a ban came into force, the Tobacco Control journo reported that most smokers had at least partial restrictions on smoking at home, but this has risen 

Public smoking ban leads to no increase in home smoking, survey finds‎ WalesOnline

Tobacco Control – Progress Update

Download PDF : 12 02 13 PHS Legco Govt briefing hs0213cb2-964-4-e

the major concerns of Legislative Council (“LegCo”) Members and the Panel on Health Services (“the Panel”) on the subject of tobacco control in the Fourth LegCo.

Download PDF : 12 02 13 PHS Legco Briefing hs0213cb2-964-5-e