Tobacco.org

Warning: Quit-smoking drugs can kill ... but they're still on sale here  

Two drugs to help smokers kick the habit will continue to be sold in Hong Kong despite claims they may trigger depression or induce suicidal thoughts. . . .

A spokeswoman for the Hospital Authority said Champix is a self- financed medicine, but added frontline medical staff will heed FDA warnings.

Pfizer Corporate Affairs director Geraldine Ip Pui-see said depression and suicidal tendencies are among symptoms contained in the drug description.

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港娱乐场所禁烟引客人大减 酒吧生意额跌三成 

新华网消息据香港大公报报道，为期两年的室内禁烟过渡期届满，酒吧、夜总会和麻雀馆等六类娱乐场所7月1日起须全面禁烟，烟雾弥漫的日子不再。不过，首日禁烟，酒吧、夜总会仍有人继续在室内吸烟，娱乐场所则采取消极手法对待。娱乐场所业界代表称，禁烟令生意进一步下跌，首日实施禁烟条例，估计酒吧生意下跌两、三成，夜总会更跌五成。

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[视频]香港室内娱乐场所全面禁烟 

央视网消息(中国新闻)：从7月1日开始，香港的酒吧、夜总会及麻将馆等娱乐场所室内将全面禁烟，那么收效如何呢？我们来看看记者的报道。

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• Smokers Snuff Out in Hong Kong Bars as Ban Begins (Update1) 

Hong Kong smokers will be squeezed out of the city’s bars and clubs when a tobacco ban takes effect at midnight after the government rejected pleas for further reprieve, saying owners have had enough time to prepare.

“It’s time for the smokers to think about quitting,” said Ronald Lam, head of the Department of Health’s Tobacco Control Office. “The key message is that the government is working with the community to push for a smoke-free society.”

The ban aligns Hong Kong with much of the European Union, the U.S. and Australia, which have all acted to protect workers from tobacco smoke. While the city banned smoking in offices and at beaches, parks and shopping malls in 2007, more than 1,000 pubs, nightclubs and mahjong halls were granted temporary exemptions, which expire tomorrow.

“It’s 2 1/2 years overdue,” said James Middleton, chairman of Hong Kong anti-tobacco pressure group Clear the Air. “Health of the workers must always come before business profits.”

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HK prepares for final phase of controversial anti-smoking legislation ($$) 

Hong Kong was gearing up for the introduction of the final phase of its controversial anti-smoking legislation on Wednesday - more than two years after an earlier ban on lighting up in public places was introduced. The smoking ban would cover six new types of listed establishments in accordance with the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance. The first phase of the smoking ban was introduced on January 1, 2007.

“These listed establishments are bars, clubs, night-clubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong-tin kau premises,” a Department of Health spokesman explained.

From Wednesday, anyone who commits a smoking offence will be subject to a maximum penalty of HK$5,000.

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• Hong Kong extends smoke ban to more recreational venues 

Smokers in Hong Kong will have to stub out their cigarettes before entering recreational venues to avoid hefty fines as an extended smoking ban comes into effect July 1.

A spokesperson of the HKSAR Health Department said late Monday that smoking will not be allowed in bars, night clubs, bathhouses, massage and mahjong premises and violators of the rule could have to pay 5,000 HK dollars in financial punishment at the most.

The spokesperson called for cooperation from the management of these venues in providing a smoke-free environment for their staff and customers, noting "they are authorized to require anyone to stop smoking in no-smoking areas and can request those refusing to produce their identity and address for follow-up action, or ask them to leave."

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• Hong Kong workers fume over smoking ban  

For everyone involved here -- from the staff ferrying free drinks and cigarettes to the players themselves -- the marriage between the Chinese gambling game and smoking is one that shouldn't be broken.

Nevertheless, it is about to be.

Hong Kong?s government is set to enforce a blanket smoking ban in public places from July 1, aimed at protecting workers in the city?s bars, nightclubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong parlours from second-hand smoke.

Yet many workers regard the legislation as a death-knell amid a recession that has pushed the city's unemployment rate up to 5.3 percent. Bars have reported a drop in business as the slowdown bites.

"With the financial crisis, swine flu and now the smoking ban, it?s a perfect storm of trouble for the entertainment sector in Hong Kong," said Lawrence Ho, who has run a bar here for 18 years.

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• Extension of smoking ban to six types of listed establishments in Hong Kong 

A spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) said today (June 29) that smoking ban at six types of listed establishments (LE) will take effect on July 1 in accordance with the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap 371).

These establishments are bars, clubs, night-clubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong-tin kau premises.

Studies have shown that second hand smoke affects the health of staff and customers at indoor public areas.

“The arrangement can further protect the public from exposure to second hand smoke,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman also called for the co-operation of venue management in providing a smoke-free environment for their staff and customers.

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Smoking ban extension to launch July 1 

The smoking ban at bars, clubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, and massage and mahjong premises will take effect July 1.

The Department of Health called for venue management co-operation in providing a smoke-free environment for their staff and customers, noting they are empowered to implement the smoking ban. They are authorised to require anyone to stop smoking in no-smoking areas and can request those refusing to produce their identity and address for follow-up action, or ask them to leave.

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LETTER: A state of ignorant bliss? ($$) 

Alex Lo's incisive article ("Ban smoking, but don't rewrite history", June 18) on smoking and social taboos is an elegant show of a disquieting reality: social morality is always premised upon the regulation of pleasure.

Think of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which is a diagnosis of postmodernity. In his utopia, all contraband intoxicants have been removed and replaced with "soma", an officially approved drug that dispels anxiety, without any side-effects. . . .

Smoking is perhaps the purest insurrectionary act that one could commit in public. It is a flagrant transgression of this deification of the body. To smoke, with full knowledge that one is courting death, is to flout the prohibitions that power places upon enjoyment, to reject the substitute satisfactions that propagate guilt and self-disgust.

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Struggling venues may turn a blind eye to smoking ban ($$) 

Come Wednesday, smoking will be banned in all indoor areas at workplaces and in public spaces - and bars, nightclubs, clubs, saunas, massage parlours and mahjong parlours will no longer be exempt.

Many such venues are ready to comply, but several establishments could be a bit hazy when it comes to the spirit of the law, the Sunday Morning Post has learned.

Several venue owners and members of an association said they feared business would plummet as a result of the ban, and they would take a fairly lenient enforcement stance.

Chin Chun-wing, vice-chairman of the Bar and Club Association, a group which represents about 200 bars in the city, said he believed members would lose 50 per cent of their business as a result of the ban, the financial downturn and swine flu.

"We have to remove ashtrays, but honestly, if we find customers smoking, we can't do much as business has already been very bad. We can't stop them smoking and drive them out of there. We won't do anything. We don't want to annoy smoking customers, especially those drunken ones, who might react very unexpectedly," Mr Chin said.

Mr Chin did say, however, that his group members would let offenders know about the smoking ban.

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Activists advocate tougher laws to close loopholes on lighting up ($$) 

Even with the smoking ban going into full effect this week, anti-smoking advocates say there is still a lot more work to be done in the city.

First, the smoking ban was not completely effective, said James Middleton, chairman of the anti-tobacco committee Clear the Air. "I think overall most Hong Kong people are law-abiding and will comply."

Still, the government needs more tobacco control inspectors, a law to ban smoking at venue entrances and outside seating areas and fines for landlords.

"At the moment, there's no onus on the landlord," he said. "They don't put the legal onus on the landlord."

The burden was on the person smoking - and it would be the locals who would face the brunt of the penalties, as tourists can fly out before paying their fines, he said.

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A few last gasps of freedom for smokers before full tobacco ban comes into effect ($$) 

Summonses, however, won't instantly be given to offenders because the tobacco control inspectors never rush to the scene when they're called with a complaint.

Instead, the inspectors will plan for an operation before inspecting and investigating any venue, said Ronald Lam Man-kin, head of the Tobacco Control Office, the agency in charge of overseeing enforcement.

The time it takes inspectors to show up "depends upon the complexity of the situation", he said. "We may have a site inspection beforehand. It can vary from a few days to a week."

Dr Lam added: "It's not an instant response. It's impracticable." He said his office "is adopting our usual mode of operation enforcement".

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'I might just stay home and smoke' ($$) 

At the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, June 30, smoking will no longer be permitted in bars, nightclubs, clubs, massage venues, mahjong parlours and bathhouses.

But Christen Ho, 29, said she was comfortable with the ban, which she said would help her quit smoking. "I intend to quit anyway, so this can help a little bit," Ms Ho said in a pub.

The full ban may worry some pub managers, but Warren McInnes, manager of The Keg on D'Aguilar Street in Central and a non-smoker, said he felt great about the whole thing.

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香港下月起进入全面禁烟时代 

从下个月开始，香港将实行全面禁烟，违者将最高处以5000港元罚款。记者昨日从香港卫生署获悉，从7月1日起香港将进一步扩大禁烟场所，此前还可以吸烟的酒吧、会所、夜总会、浴室、按摩院及麻将馆等6类娱乐场也都将实行禁烟。在香港，烟民想过把烟瘾的难度将越来越大。

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