Tobacco.org

• 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."

Jump to full article »

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.

Jump to full article »

• 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.

Jump to full article »

• Unions tell staff not to enforce smoking ban ($$) 

A government department's staff union has made a last-minute appeal to its members not to enforce the city's smoking ban - which is being extended today - but to perform only their original duties.

"We've issued a statement to our members, urging them to do our original duties," said Gary Cheung Siu-wing, chairman of the Leisure Service Staff General Union. . . .

Starting from today, 2,200 staff from the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, 700 from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and 430 from the Housing Department will be responsible for handing out fixed-penalty tickets to those who smoke in premises and venues under their management - such as libraries, wet markets, beaches and housing estates.

Cheung doubted if they had the legal right to issue the tickets, because over 90 per cent of them still had not got the new departmental warrant card. "Because it's an extra duty ... we need to have the warrant card before we can enforce the new ban," Cheung said.

Jump to full article »

• Smokers Risk Swine Flu Complications Like Pneumonia, Data Show  

Smokers may be prone to developing life-threatening complications from swine flu, according to patient data from Hong Kong, where tobacco use was noted in almost half of severe cases.

Twelve of 27 swine flu patients who developed pneumonia and other serious illnesses were either current or former smokers and some had no other known risk factors, Thomas Tsang, acting controller of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, told a medical meeting in Beijing yesterday.

“The proportion of smokers among the serious cases is pretty high,” Tsang said in an interview. “So far this is just one observation that stands out and we need to investigate it.”

Tsang’s findings may shed more light on a mystery that doctors are grappling with: why the new flu remains mild for a majority of people and is severe enough to kill in others. Worldwide, about 1,800 people infected with H1N1 have died since the virus was discovered in April.

Jump to full article »

• Smokers, obese, children under 6 at risk 

Smokers, obese people and children under the age of six are now classified as high-risk groups of A (H1N1) influenza and will be given Tamiflu once they appear with flu-like symptoms.

The new prescription criteria was announced by an expert group of the Hospital Authority (HA) last weekend after the emergence of more severe cases and increasing number of infections in Hong Kong.

The city confirmed 76 new cases of human swine flu yesterday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,886.

Forty-one patients are hospitalized, with five in critical condition.

Liu Shao-hei, the HA's chief manager (Infection, Emergency & Contingency), said that according to the experts' study some factors may cause more serious reactions.

The expert group recommends pneumonia patients with risk factors including pregnancy, smoking, obesity and persistent flu-like symptoms beyond 48 hours should be given anti-viral treatment at the earliest possibility.

Jump to full article »

• Profits up in smoke after complete ban takes effect 

HONG KONG: Owners of some entertainment venues are howling, saying business at their establishments has plummeted in the past two weeks because of the smoking ban.

Full enforcement of the ban on smoking in public areas came into effect on July 1, meaning people now have to butt out, at bars, nightclubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong/tin kau parlors. No one is allowed to smoke in public venues of any description, since universal enforcement of the law. Owners claim customer turnout just isn't the same as it was before the ban went into effect.

Chin Chun-wing, vice chairman of the Hong Kong Bar and Club Association, which represents about 200 bars in the city, estimated that the number of customers turning up has plunged 40 to 50 per cent over early July last year.

"The business on the past weekend was terrible. I saw many empty seats when I toured around bars in Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay on Saturday night. They used to be packed with people," he said.

Chin said the decline in business probably traces to the smoking ban. "Some smokers would gather and drink with friends at home rather than going out as they fear to be caught lighting up in pubs by law enforcers," he said.

Jump to full article »

• 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.”

Jump to full article »

• 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."

Jump to full article »

• 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.

Jump to full article »

• 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.

Jump to full article »

• Film ad provokes HK anti-smokers 

A poster for a film about Coco Chanel that features the French fashion legend smoking a cigarette might break Hong Kong laws on tobacco advertising.

The advert for "Coco Before Chanel" shows the film's star Audrey Tautou in silk pyjamas with Chanel's trademark cigarette dangling from her fingers.

Although banned in Paris, France, it has appeared across Hong Kong.

But a campaign group, Clear the Air, alleges the poster breaks Hong Kong's increasingly strict anti-smoking laws.

Smoking airbrushed

James Middleton, chairman of the anti-tobacco committee for campaign group Clear the Air, said the poster breaks Hong Kong laws banning any mention of smoking or cigarettes in advertising.

Jump to full article »

• Hong Kong bar workers rally against smoking ban 

Hundreds of restaurant and bar workers took to the streets here Sunday to protest against a blanket smoking ban due to be implemented in July, saying it would put many of them out of business.

In a series of demonstrations throughout the day, workers and owners of bars, nightclubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong parlours marched in driving rain to Central Government Offices to voice their concerns.

Police sources said around 200 people took part, although a spokeswoman for the Entertainment Business Rights Concern Group said more than 1,000 attended.

The indoor smoking ban is due to be fully implemented July 1 but industry workers have called for a deferment of two years to enable outlets to recover from the effects of a recession

Jump to full article »

• Rally to seek two-year delay in bar smoke ban ($$) 

Bar owners are calling on staff and patrons to join them next Sunday to protest against a ban on smoking in nightclubs, bars and mahjong schools set to come into force in July.

They claim the ban could force more than half the city's 1,000 or so bars and clubs to close, because smokers are their major clients.

The owners want the government to postpone the ban for two years, saying their businesses have already been hit hard by the economic downturn. Next Sunday's protest, with the theme "no smoking, no job", is a fresh bid by the sector after a failed attempt last week by legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip to move a private member's bill seeking to push back the implementation of the ban.

Legislative Council president Tsang Yok-sing ruled that Mr Chan's attempt breached a ban on lawmakers introducing bills related to "government policy".

The Hong Kong Bar and Club Association, which is organising the protest, expects a turnout of at least 2,000 people.

Jump to full article »

• Effect of Passive Household Smoking Exposure on the Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease in Never-Smoke Female Patients in Hong Kong  

Objective: To investigate the relation between household passive smoking exposure and risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) among female never-smoke patients by a retrospective case-control analysis.

Methods: This study recruited 314 patients with IHD who had never smoked and 319 controls who were admitted for other reasons in the same hospital during the same period. . . .

Conclusion: Our data suggested an increased risk of IHD from passive household smoking in female never-smoke subjects, and demonstrated a dose-response association. . . .

What this paper adds

(1) Passive household smoking exposure was associated with a higher risk of IHD.

(2) The risk of IHD showed an increasing trend with increasing intensity and duration of passive smoking.

Jump to full article »