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May 10th, 2017:

Anti-smoking group seeks to raise legal smoking age to 20

Around one billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the 21st century if current smoking patterns continue…

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3159764

Taiwan’s anti-smoking group held a press conference on Wednesday calling for higher legal smoking age and completely smoke-free workplaces and indoor public places.

The group has called on the Legislature to revise the nation’s Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act comprehensively to correspond to the requirements of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

WHO FCTC is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization that was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chen Man-Li (陳曼麗) and Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Ko Chih-En (柯志恩) both showed up to the press conference today in support of the group.

Taiwan Heart Foundation’s Chairman Lue Hung-chi (呂鴻基) said today that around one billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the 21st century if current smoking patterns continue.

Major changes that the group has called for include bans on smoking in all workplaces and indoor public places, increase the size of warnings on tobacco packs to 85% of the surface area and with mandatory plain packaging, bans on sponsorship from tobacco companies, bans on the sale of flavored cigarettes, extend all the smoking-related bans to include e-cigarettes, and raise the legal age for smoking from 18 to 20.