Lai See | Government could save lives by raising cigarette taxes

Readers may know that Hong Kong's poor air quality has accounted for an average of 3,200 premature deaths over the past five years. The government is finally making noises about doing something about it. But an even bigger killer is tobacco-related deaths. These amount to 7,000 deaths a year in Hong Kong, and about six million globally. Indeed as a letter from the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health in our august organ pointed out yesterday, one in every two smokers dies from a tobacco-related disease. This is a figure that is now accepted by the World Health Organisation. Hong Kong's record in tobacco control has not been bad over the past 20 years. But given the chilling effects of smoking on both those that smoke and those around them, from passive smoking, Hong Kong needs to upgrade its efforts to get ahead of the curve. Firstly it needs to increase the tax on tobacco. All the authorities, WHO, the World Bank and others agree that price is one of the biggest deterrents, particularly among young people. The WHO recommends that cigarettes be taxed at a minimum of 70 per cent of the retail price. In Hong Kong, the tax on a packet of 20 cigarettes selling for HK$50 is about 68 per cent, which is by far the lowest among developed countries. In Sydney, the same brand of cigarettes sells for HK$139.60, in New York HK$95.87, London HK$90.70, and Singapore HK$76.50. Another aspect of smoking is the high hospital costs of treating tobacco-related diseases, which in Hong Kong amount to HK$6 billion a year. So there are a number of compelling reasons for the financial secretary to raise the tobacco tax in his forthcoming budget.

Every cloud, as they say, has a silver lining. Hence although Beijing's ghastly smog is a nightmare for its inhabitants, it is a boon for companies selling air purifiers. Some of the biggest suppliers of these products - Panasonic and Sharp - are Japanese. Japan and its products have not exactly been flavour of the month in recent times on the mainland. However, despite this lack of warm feeling towards Japan, Bloomberg reports that Sharp's sales of air purifiers on the mainland tripled last month compared with a year ago, while Panasonic's soared 50 per cent. Consumer appliance outlets in and around Beijing say that sales of air purifiers have increased tenfold in recent months. Is there perhaps the germ of a solution here to the tensions between the mainland and Japan, along the lines of we'll help with your dirty air in Beijing if you do something about the hot air around the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands?