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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 16):
Question:
An organization recently sent four teenagers to 486 retail shops and news-stands throughout the territory to try to buy cigarettes, and the success rate was as high as 87%. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether, in the light of the above success rate, it has reviewed the effectiveness of the Tobacco Control Office's enforcement efforts against the sale of tobacco products by shops to persons under the age of 18 years; if so; of the result of the review; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) of the total number of complaints received by the authorities in the past three years about the sale of tobacco products by shops to persons under the age of 18 years, and the number of persons prosecuted as a result; as well as the new measures to curb this illegal activity; and
(c) of its specific plans to prevent young people from picking up the habit of cigarette smoking?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Section 15A (1) of the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (the Ordinance) provides that no person shall sell any cigarette, cigarette tobacco, cigar or pipe tobacco to any person under the age of 18 years. Under section 15C (1) of the Ordinance, any person who contravenes this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 4 (i.e. a maximum fine of HK$25,000). In case of doubt, a tobacco retailer may ask a customer to produce his/her identification document and refuse to sell any tobacco products to any person under the age of 18 years.
Under the existing Ordinance, no statutory power is given to the staff of the Tobacco Control Office (TCO) under the Department of Health (DH) to take enforcement action. To rectify this deficiency, we propose in Clause 18 of the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill 2005 (the Bill) that TCO's inspectors be granted general powers of enforcement including the power to enter premises and to collect and seize evidence.
The Bill is now under scrutiny by the Legislative Council. Its early enactment would be conducive to the prevention of youth smoking. We will keep the effectiveness of our enforcement efforts under review with a view to lowering the percentage of smokers among the youth.
(b) Though not given the necessary powers to take enforcement action now, TCO officers will, upon receipt of complaints, conduct impromptu visits to the tobacco retail outlets concerned and keep them under surveillance to see whether they sell tobacco products to underage persons. In the course of their visits, if it is found that the retail outlets have sold tobacco products to underage persons or there are other contraventions in breach of the legislation such as failure to put up the signage "No Tobacco Product Shall Be Sold To Person Under 18 Or Given For Promotion To Any Person" as stipulated in Part VI of the Smoking (Public Health) (Notice) Order, TCO will refer the cases to the Police for follow-up investigation and action.
Between early 2003 and October this year, TCO under DH received a total of 28 complaints about the sale of tobacco products to underage persons.
As a result of these complaints, the Police altogether issued seven summonses to the tobacco retailers involved. Among them, five of the cases were successfully prosecuted, resulting in conviction and a fine (the heaviest fine imposed was HK$3,000 in one of the cases), and two other cases pending a trial date to be fixed. There is another case pending the issue of summons by the Police to tobacco retailers who have breached the law.
(c) The SAR Government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to tobacco control. Measures include, among others, education and publicity to make youths aware of nicotine addiction and the harmful effects of smoking; the provision of smoking cessation service to all smokers; the enactment of legislation to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to persons under the age of 18 years; and proposed amendment to the existing legislation to expand the statutory no smoking areas. All these serve to promote a smoke-free culture and protect the health of the general public, including that of youths.
With regard to publicity and education, the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) has incorporated the message about health hazards posed by smoking and its other harmful effects into the generic curricula of primary and secondary schools to convey the message to school children as early as possible. EMB also encourages schools to organise anti-smoking activities so as to educate primary and secondary students and their parents on how to stay away from smoking or quit smoking.
In addition, an Adolescent Health Programme is organised by DH in secondary schools each year. Through interactive activities, this Programme provides training to secondary students on life skills and to enhance their capacity to cope with adversity. General knowledge about tobacco product abuse and the techniques to refuse such products are also covered in the training.
Furthermore, every year the Government will provide funding to non-government organisations such as the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health to organize activities on prevention of youth smoking. Other non-government organisations like the Life Education Activities Programme and the Action on Smoking or Health, also regularly organise activities on tobacco control targeting at adolescents.
The Government has been assisting young addicted smokers to quit smoking through various avenues. Besides the Nicotine Replacement Therapy introduced in the Education and Training Centre in Family Medicine under DH, a Cessation Hotline (183 3183) has been set up by DH to provide smoking counselling and relevant information. At the same time, the Hospital Authority has established Smoking Counselling and Cessation Centres in a number of hospitals/clinics across the territory, where smoking cessation classes are organised and relevant information provided. Likewise, the Department of Nursing Studies under the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong is operating a hotline service for smoking cessation targetting young people aged between 12 and 25 (2855 9557).
With regard to legislation, shopping malls, shopping centres, cinemas and amusement game centres, all of which are frequently visited by youths, have already been designated as statutory no smoking areas under the existing Ordinance. To further prevent youths from smoking, the Bill proposes that the statutory no smoking areas be extended to cover all schools, and the indoor areas of tertiary and specified educational institutions.
We believe that the above measures will help to raise the awareness among the youth of the hazards of smoking and keep them away from smoking. As mentioned above, the Bill is now under scrutiny by the Legislative Council. We would like to have Honourable Members' support to endorse the Bill as soon as possible so that we can step up our efforts on tobacco control.
Ends/Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Issued at HKT 14:18
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