Tobacco.org

香港室内全面禁烟 有盖大排档抽烟也被罚 

摘要：今年7月1日起，香港正式实行室内全面禁烟。究竟何为“室内”？近日，这一概念遭遇挑战。一香港人在类似于内地的有盖大排档里抽烟，被卫生署控烟办定罪为“室内吸烟”，他不满判决，上诉至高等法院。高等法院裁决：此类地点确实不属“室内”范围，控烟办败诉。

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香港所有报摊禁上香烟广告 [Of Hong Kong ban on all cigarette advertisements newsstand] 

由11月1日起，香港所有持牌小贩包括报摊，禁止展示任何形式烟草广告。

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• Display boxes for cigarettes may be illegal ($$) 

Display boxes showing cigarette packets replaced banners and posters at newspaper stands yesterday, as tobacco advertisements disappeared across Hong Kong in the final phase of the cigarette advertising ban.

But the government said the display boxes could be regarded as advertisements and it would consider prosecution. Both vendors and smokers said the ban would not affect how many cigarette packets they bought or sold.

Tobacco advertisements have been banned in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and public spaces since the 1990s, but newspaper stands and hawkers were exempted until yesterday.

In Causeway Bay, large display boxes equipped with spotlights were observed at almost all newspaper stands. Packets of cigarettes were seen revolving inside the boxes.

Ms Chim, a vendor, said tobacco companies helped her renovate the stand by adding the display boxes, and were still paying her about HK$3,000 a month in "advertising fees", even though her posters and banners had disappeared. But display boxes were not advertisements, she said. "It is not an advertisement if there are no words."

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It is not an advertisement if there are no words.
Ms Chim, a vendor who said tobacco companies helped her renovate her stand by adding display boxes, and were still paying her about HK$3,000 a month in "advertising fees"--even though her posters and banners had been taken down as Hong Kong's final phase of its advertising ban took effect.

• Designing A Safer Cigarette 

What if we had a less dangerous cigarette for people who can't kick the habit, letting them keep on smoking but stay alive longer while they're doing it? It's available in Canada, France, Russia and a few places in Asia. The 350 million smokers in China may also get their hands on it. The U.S.? Forget it.

It's another perverse result of the 1998 settlement that had tobacco companies--and, ultimately, their customers--chipping in to balance state budgets and pay for lawyers' yachts. The deal turned the big tobacco companies into a cartel and locked in their market shares. The state attorneys general who put together the $206 billion agreement ward off potential competitors so the money keeps flowing to their states. One way to fend off rivals: pounce on any company making health claims. How convenient for Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.

In this case the target is an eight-year-old Hong Kong biotech company, Filligent. Its MicroBlue filter blocks many of the toxins that make a cigarette dangerous but doesn't disturb the ingredients that give it flavor and produce that seductive though addictive nicotine buzz. "For years the public health community has just assumed that the smoke from cigarettes is all bad," says Scott Ballin, director for the Alliance for Health, Economic & Agriculture Development in Washington, D.C., which is funded by economic development groups in tobacco-growing states and has been critical of the settlement. "Now advances in basic science have given us a much more nuanced understanding of what's in that stuff--what's harmful and what's mainly benign."

Fewer than 5% of the people who try to stop smoking succeed for as long as five years, says Filligent Chief Executive Melissa Mowbray-d'Arbela. So given the futility of getting smokers to end their addiction, tobacco experts such as Dr. Judith Mackay of the World Lung Foundation in New York say Filligent's product could be the next best thing to quitting.

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11月起香港将禁止所有烟草广告 

新华网１０月２８日电　香港特区政府卫生署控烟办公室２８日表示，从１１月１日起香港的各售报点将不能再展示烟草广告。至此，所有的烟草广告将在香港消失。

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Quarter of teens have smoked, HKU study finds ($$) 

One in four Hong Kong teenagers has smoked, and second-hand smoke can aggravate respiratory symptoms even among smokers. These are the main findings of a University of Hong Kong study published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers from the university's school of public health said the study was the first to show that exposure to second-hand smoke was associated with increased risk of persistent respiratory symptoms among adolescent smokers.

Current smokers who were exposed to second-hand smoke at home for five to seven days a week were 77 per cent more likely to suffer from respiratory symptoms than those who were not exposed, researchers said. If they also encountered second-hand smoke outside home, the percentage of risk was even higher, at 85 per cent.

Some 32,506 people aged 11 to 20 were recruited from 85 randomly selected schools in 2003 and 2004 and asked to fill in a questionnaire. The survey revealed 24 per cent had smoked - 9 per cent who were currently smoking, 13 per cent who had tried smoking and 2 per cent who had kicked the habit.

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影视剧烟草镜头不容乐观 [Movies and television cameras can not be optimistic about tobacco] 

10月20日在香港举行的第三届两岸四地烟害防制交流研讨会上，中国控制吸烟协会青少年控烟职业委员会专家吕若然、段佳丽指出，目前，我国尚无明确的法律法规限制影视剧中的烟草镜头。虽然与前几年相比，影视剧中的烟草镜头控制情况有所改善，但从2008年的影视剧来看，烟草镜头暴露的情况仍然不容乐观，影视剧中基本没有控制烟草的宣传。

October 20 in Hong Kong, the four at the third cross-Strait Seminar on Tobacco Control, the Chinese Association on Smoking Control Youth Tobacco Control's professional committee of experts Lu and if so, Duan beauties pointed out that currently there is no clear laws and regulations in China restrictions on tobacco film and television drama shot. While in previous years, film and television drama shot in tobacco control situation has improved, but the 2008 TV drama point of view, the lens of tobacco exposure is still not optimistic, film and television drama basically no tobacco control advocacy.

In the agency investigated 10 domestic films, there are four appeared in the tobacco lens, a total of 25 times, average length of the tobacco lens, 1 minute. Have been investigated 11 television shows, then all the emergence of tobacco lens. A total of 453 times the lens of tobacco there, with an average there are 41.1 per tobacco television camera, when the episode an average length of the lens of tobacco 1.5 minutes. Among them, the appearances of tobacco exposure to a television camera the most, with an average occur once every 17.3 minutes tobacco lens.

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港大研究发现:烟民吸二手烟患病风险增85% 

新华网消息据香港文汇报报道，二手烟可引致多种严重疾病及死亡，但不少香港市民均以为二手烟只会影响非吸烟者，而对吸烟者则无额外影响，原来属错误想法。一项研究发现，吸烟者如在家外每周5至7天吸入二手烟的话，患呼吸症状的风险会较没有吸入二手烟者增加85%；接触二手烟的日数越多，风险越高。

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黄洁夫赞扬港澳台三地控烟工作值得内地借镜 

中新网10月21日电 据澳门日报报道，为期两天的第三届两岸四地烟害防制交流研讨会20日在香港开幕，超过100人参加。与会者一致认为，面对烟草危害和威胁，必须采取一系列措施防控，包括促请政府增加烟草税及禁止烟草广告等。

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SFH to attend tobacco control conference in Beijing 

The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, today (October 11) flies to Beijing to attend the fourth session of the member representative assembly of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control cum tobacco control conference to be held tomorrow.

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Tobacco in Hong Kong, China 

Tougher legislation dents cigarette sales

Stricter legislation in the form of a ban on smoking in public places in 2007 led to yet another year of declining cigarette volume sales. The ban is set to become absolute from July 2009 onwards, encompassing popular smoking locations such as restaurants, bars and mah-jong parlours. Smoking prevalence also decreased over the review period. Limited time and places available has led smokers to smoke more quickly, with some smoking just half a cigarette at a time. In 2009 the government increased taxes on cigarettes by 50%, which is expected to be a further blow to the tobacco industry in Hong Kong over the forecast period.

Mid-tar category dominates, but low-tar the best performing

Mid-tar brands continued to dominate cigarette sales in Hong Kong in 2008, accounting for more than 55% of sales during the year. That said, mid-tar and high-tar cigarettes both registered a decline in 2008 as consumers increasingly shifted towards lower-tar products, which achieved positive growth. With male smokers opting for lower-tar alternatives, the growing demographic of female and young smokers has also fuelled growth of low-tar products. Many consumers perceive lower-tar cigarettes as being healthier than their high-tar counterparts.

Philip Morris Asia continues to dominate

Philip Morris Asia remained the dominant player in cigarettes in 2008. The company owns the leading brand, Marlboro, which accounted for nearly half of all cigarette sales in 2008. Marlboro has captured a loyal customer base through its strong and well-established brand name as well as its wide distribution network throughout Hong Kong. To further strengthen its leading position, Philip Morris Asia launched its new brand L&M in the second half of 2008 to capture more consumers.

Convenience stores the leading distribution channel

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Tobacco in Hong Kong to 2013 - new market and company analysis 

This databook provides key data and information on the tobacco market in Hong Kong. This report is a comprehensive resource for market, category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution share and company & brand share. This report also provides expenditure and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.

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Smoker Assaulted Tobacco Control Inspector, Quit Smoking Support 

A smoker was convicted by the Court for assaulting a Tobacco Control Inspector (TCI), A spokesman for the Hong Kong Department of Health said.

The man, aged 32, was fined $2 000 and ordered to pay compensation of $133 to the affected TCI by Eastern Magistrates' Court.

The incident took place on July 5 when the man was found smoking by a TCI in an amusement game centre in Wan Chai. He forcefully pulled a door which hit the TCI at the chest during the course of investigation.

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• Unions see red over enforcing smoking ban ($$) 

More than a dozen unions have pledged to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department that they will enforce the smoking ban, its chief said yesterday, though union leaders disputed that claim.

Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Cheuk Wing-hing said that he had met the heads of 13 of the department's unions, representing more than 5,400 civil servants, and that all leaders had said they would implement the law. The department has 16 unions.

His claim comes after seven representatives from the department's two staff unions marched to the Legislative Council's complaints division on Tuesday to file a complaint about being made to enforce the ban. A union leader present at yesterday's meeting with Cheuk said that some unions had made clear their opposition towards enforcing the ban.

But Cheuk said that it was only "individual groups" who were unwilling to perform their new duty.

"Civil servants in their right mind will implement the new law," he said.

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Staff too busy to enforce smoking ban, say unions ($$) 

Two unions representing government workers said on Wednesday their members were too busy to hand out fixed-penalty tickets to people violating Hong Kong’s anti-smoking laws.

Their comments follow the extension on Tuesday of anti-smoking laws to include 48 public transport interchanges, bus terminals, wet markets, beaches and housing estates.

Some 2,200 staff from the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, 700 from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and 430 from the Housing Department are responsible for enforcing the new penalties.

But the Leisure Service Staff General Union and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s Staff Rights Union, said its members could not perform these extra duties because they did not have sufficient manpower.

However, Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Cheuk Wing-hing said most of his staff had assured him they would not ignore their new duties.

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