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Motion debate on "Anti-smoking"

The following is a speech by the acting Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Doris Ho, at the Motion Debate on "Anti-smoking" moved by Dr the Hon Leong Che- hung in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

I thank Honourable Members for their interest in this important issue. As the Secretary responsible for health matters, I am particularly gratified to see concern being shared by so many. The need to protect individual and public health, and especially the health of the young, is a matter on which we are all agreed. There can be little doubt that smoking is hazardous to health. Who among us could say that smoking is a habit to be encouraged, rather than discouraged? What is being debated today is therefore not whether there is a need to reduce smoking in our community -- only the scope of measures to be taken to achieve this.

First of all, I would like to stress that Government's policy on smoking has always been a progressive and evolving one. As more medical evidence about the hazards of smoking emerged in the 1970s, we reviewed the situation and determined that this was an area where legislative control was required. That was how the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance came into being in 1982. The Ordinance provides a regulatory framework for control of the sale, use and promotion of tobacco products, as well as a vehicle for the setting up of no smoking areas.

Since then, we have regularly reviewed the need for further legislative measures, taking into account world trends and local views. Over the past 15 years, the Ordinance has been amended and updated several times, gradually moving towards a more comprehensive control scheme.

To inform people of the health hazards of smoking, all tobacco advertisements and tobacco products are required to carry a prescribed health warning. In the beginning, we had only one general health warning, stating that "smoking is hazardous to health". Since 1994, we have had four stronger and more specific health warnings. We are now planning to introduce new ones.

We have set an upper limit on the tar content allowed in cigarettes and require cigarette packets and advertisements to display a tar group designation. The purpose of this is to restrict the level of harmful substances in cigarettes and to enable smokers to make an informed choice. We propose to reduce further the maximum tar content and revise the information required to be provided on packets and in advertisements.