XN000022-1997-01-15 — Page 17

We impose a duty on tobacco. This seeks to discourage cigarettes consumption. The tobacco industry and others have pointed out that a high duty encourages smuggling and reduces Government revenue. The question here is whether cigarettes should be made cheap and thereby encourage smoking when we know full well that even greater community cost will be incurred in the form of increased ill-health and medical expenses to treat smoking-related illnesses.

To protect non-smokers from passive smoking, a number of public places have These include all public already been designated as statutory no-smoking areas. transport carriers, cinemas, theatres, concert halls, amusement game centres and public lifts. We intend to introduce a mechanism to allow managers of restaurants, supermarkets, banks and shopping malls to designate all or part of the places under their control as statutory no-smoking areas if they so wish.

Apart from setting up statutory no smoking areas in public areas, the Hon Member Mr Tse Wing-ling will be pleased to learn that the Government also sees the need to promote the idea of smokefree workplaces. Since a working person stays in the workplace for many hours every day, it is important that they are provided with a safe and healthy working environment. As a responsible employer and to set a good example for other employers in the private sector, we have implemented a smokefree workplace policy for all Government premises since 1 April 1996. I note with pleasure that these Chambers also have such a policy in place, thanks to the Hon Member Mr Martin Lee's efforts. The Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) has contributed by inviting private sector organizations to sign a "Smokefree Workplace Charter". Seventy-three organizations have already signed it. We hope that more will follow suit.

We know that most smokers started the habit before they became adults. We also know that once people start smoking, it is extremely difficult to quit, and some never succeed. To reduce the smoking population, we therefore need to prevent young people from taking up the habit in the first place. This was why we set up COSH in 1984. The good work carried out by COSH has been commented by the Hon Members tonight but I would like to inform Members more of COSH's untiring efforts. Its designated task is to undertake public education, publicity and information dissemination among the public, in particular among the young in schools. Between 1992/93 and 1996/97; Government's injection of resources into COSH has increased by more than 80%, from $2.8m to over $5m. On top of that, an additional funding of $7.5m has been given to COSH to intensify its efforts targeted at youth. These figures indicate that Government has been substantially increasing the resources devoted to the anti-smoking campaign over the years. With the increased funding, COSH has produced innovative TV announcements targeted particularly at youth, conducted many school projects, including talks and drama performances to get the anti-smoking message across to school children. To achieve the maximum result in our efforts to discourage smoking among the young, we have stepped up legislative control by prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors under the age of 18 since April 1995. There have been some 20 prosecutions for underaged sales during the period from April 1995 to June 1996.