Legislators have overwhelmingly passed the controversial anti-smoking bill banning smoking in all indoor workplaces and restaurants and selected outdoor areas such as parks and beaches after a marathon nine-hour debate.
Caroline Kim – Thursday, October 19, 2006 – The Standard
Legislators have overwhelmingly passed the controversial anti-smoking bill banning smoking in all indoor workplaces and restaurants and selected outdoor areas such as parks and beaches after a marathon nine-hour debate.
The vote on the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill 2005 – with 52 in favor and two abstentions – paves the way for the ban to come into effect from the start of next year.
The bill, which went through its first and second readings Wednesday, exempts certain places of entertainment such as mahjong parlors, massage houses and nightclubs until July 1, 2009. It will go through its third reading today.
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok shocked lawmakers with a last-minute announcement that the government will, over the next year or two, study the feasibility of allowing smoking rooms at public parks and beaches.
Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, Albert Chan Wai-yip, Andrew Cheng Kar-foo and Kwok Ka-ki introduced further amendments to the bill.
The Democratic Party’s Cheng, who has been advocating a complete ban on smoking at outdoor recreational parks, stuck to his original amendment, which prohibits the sale of tobacco products to people in school uniform.
Kwok, the medical sector representative who has also consistently pushed for a total smoking ban in outdoor recreational parks, expressed concern over exposure to secondhand smoke at theme parks such as Ocean Park, despite previous letters from the park’s management stating that smoking areas have already been designated throughout the facility.
“More than HK$5.3 billion has already been spent on medical care for people with illnesses related to secondhand smoke, while 14,000 people are dying each year from both smoking and secondhand smoke,” Kwok said.
Chow, reiterating his previous stance on Kwok’s amendment, said: “The designated smoking areas are places where there are very few visitors.”
Kwok, questioning the government’s decision to introduce the provision during the last stages of the bill, said: “If you’re referring to smoking rooms in restaurants, that means you’re taking a regressive step when we have spent over 150 hours already on the bill’s review.”
Chow said that “although a trial of newly constructed smoking rooms failed to be viable, we’ll conduct studies within the next one or two years to seek a feasible ventilation system.”
Kwok argued: “The government has imposed the idea of smoking rooms for the sake of industries.”
Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades president Simon Wong Ka-wo said: “The catering industry and customers will get used to a total smoking ban in two years. The introduction of smoking rooms is, therefore, totally unnecessary.
“Creating separate smoking rooms could cost up to HK$500,000 each. It is not viable for small traders,” Wong said.
Both Chan and Cheung withdrew their amendments to smoking rooms following the government’s proposal to conduct a further study on the matter.
“I cannot support this bill because there are just too many loopholes,” Chan said.
The government did not support Chan’s other amendment for a complete exemption for bars, mahjong parlors and other venues, which have been granted a two-year grace period.
“If we want customers to continue patronizing restaurants and bars, the government needs to invest more in education and publicity,” The Frontier’s Emily Lau Wai-hing suggested.
Chow said the government would not support an amendment prohibiting smoking in queues at bus stops and transportation interchanges, as proposed by several lawmakers.
Martin Lee Chu-ming, who has been lobbying for an anti-smoking bill for almost a decade, said Hong Kong should learn from the United States, where a health warning was recently issued against secondhand smoke, saying that inhalation of secondhand smoke can increase the risk of contracting heart diseases and lung cancer by up to 30 percent.
Representatives of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong stressed the importance of individuals’ rights, stating that the law should not deprive people of their freedom and choice.