Hong Kong’s health minister has confirmed that a ban on tobacco sales for future generations is being considered to further curb youth smoking, reports the South China Morning Post.
“We should not let our guard down despite Hong Kong having one of the world’s lowest smoking rates … let our new generations no longer be tempted and harmed by tobacco products,” Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said at an evening event to mark the 40th anniversary of tobacco control in Hong Kong. “Gradually raising the legal age for buying tobacco products and making the next generation not able to buy tobacco products legally forever are among the options.”
Without elaborating on how such a plan would be enforced, Lo said the government would take cues from other countries’ experiences in discouraging young people from using tobacco and aiming for a “smoke-free Hong Kong.”
His remarks came after Henry Tong Sau-chai, chairman of the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health, quoted Lo as saying in a private conversation last week that the government was considering the New Zealand model to reduce access to cigarettes.
New Zealand’s parliament passed the first draft of legislation in July that would ban the purchase of tobacco for those born after 2009, a reform touted by some health experts as “world-leading” but criticized by some in the country as too drastic.
To further reduce the number of smokers in the city, Tong also proposed doubling the tobacco tax to encourage consumers to quit. This would mean that a pack of cigarettes, which currently costs HKD 60 (USD 7.64), would rise to around HKD 100 (USD 12.74), the report said.