SCMP – Updated on Dec 17, 2008
Judith Mackay (Talkback, December 11) has a serious problem in her quest to eliminate cigarette smoking but there is absolutely no justification to target a small group of businesses that provide a service for those who wish to smoke.
Licensed bars and entertainment places are private premises to which customers are invited at a manager’s discretion and are not public places with right of access.
Smoky bars are, therefore, not places with “indoor air pollution” to which the public or even “catering workers” are forced to venture.
Nobody disputes that nicotine is an addictive drug and smoking kills, but like it or not, hundreds of millions of people worldwide still choose to smoke.
Governments are sensible enough not to attempt to outlaw tobacco because quite apart from not wanting to lose billions of tax dollars, the memory of the attempted alcohol ban in the US in the 1920s – Prohibition – is still too fresh.
No-smoking regulations already applied to shopping centres are weakly enforced, so what hope have you of enforcing even stricter regulations for private premises?
The chairman of the Clear the Air (Talkback, December 12) group, Christian Masset, should check his facts. I am still a life member of the group.
I submitted a resignation some years ago, which was never acknowledged and the group has continued to send me members’ notices. I have also asked him as Clear the Air chairman to have a members’ general debate on the smoking issue, which was ignored.
The anti-tobacco lobby in Hong Kong and elsewhere has not been doing too well in recent years. Its weary message of doom for smokers is as stale as the lingering smell of smoke in an empty bar.
Clear the Air has unfortunately permitted itself to be hijacked by anti-smoking campaigners, seeking to reinforce their flagging message.
Most supporters believe in a far more noble cause than penalising smokers.
We believe the priority is to clean the filthy and unhealthy outside air we are compelled to breathe without choice.
This is what air pollution is really all about.
If Dr Mackay and Clear the Air get their way, they will drive smoking dens underground.
Or worse still, we will have larger groups of people hanging around on the pavements, blowing smoke into the faces of passers-by.
Leave the bars and entertainment spots alone.
P. A. Crush, Sha Tin
Reference:
Response on Mr. Crush from James Middleton, Chairman, Anti-tobacco committee, Clear the Air