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Second reading of Smoking Amendment Bill
Following is a speech by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in moving the second reading of the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1997 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill be read the second time.
The Bill aims to introduce further restrictions on tobacco advertising as well as on the use, sale and promotion of tobacco products. This represents a further step in Government's anti-smoking initiatives.
We propose to ban tobacco display advertisements, which include posters; painted, printed or photographic displays on walls, hoardings and public transport; signs on rooftops and projections from buildings; lightboxes on-street and inside MTR stations, etc. This kind of advertisement is prominent, pervasive and has a long-term visual effect on passers-by. The ban will help to reduce public exposure to images which induce smoking. We propose a two-year grace period before implementation to allow existing contracts to run out.
We propose to introduce a new mechanism to facilitate the setting up of statutory no smoking areas in restaurants, department stores, shopping malls, supermarkets and banks. Any manager of such premises can, if he so wishes, designate any part of the premises under his control as a statutory no smoking area by displaying a prescribed sign. The manager will then have power under the law to stop people from smoking in the designated areas.
To make tobacco products less accessible to young people, we intend to prohibit the sale of cigarettes in packets of less than 20 sticks or through the use of vending machines.
To follow the trend overseas, we propose to lower the maximum permissible tar yield in cigarettes from 20 mg to 17 mg. At the same time, we will change the existing requirement to indicate the tar group on cigarette packets and advertisements to requiring indication of the tar and nicotine yields instead. This again follows overseas practice.