Restaurants and offices should decide whether to impose more restrictions, says tobacco industry

Improved ventilation is a better defence against annoying smoke than a ban on smoking in indoor public places, cigarette makers argued yesterday.

Peter Tam Chung-ho, executive director of the Tobacco Institute of Hong Kong, said restaurants and offices should decide whether to impose bans.

The Legislative Council passed a proposal on Wednesday calling on the Government to review anti-smoking laws and canvass public views on extending the ban. Currently, restaurants with more than 200 seats have to provide one-third of the area as smoke-free. Smoking in shopping malls and department stores was banned in 1997.

Secretary for Health and Welfare Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong said the Government was preparing proposed amendments to anti-smoking laws, including a clause prohibiting smoking in all restaurants and workplaces.

Mr Tam said indoor air quality could be improved with new technology, such as ventilation devices.

But Professor Anthony Hedley, chairman of the Council on Smoking and Health, pointed to a study published in June last year by American health physicist James Rapace which concluded that any form of 'dilution ventilation, air cleaning or displacement ventilation technology, even under moderate smoking conditions, cannot control environmental tobacco smoke risk'. The study had also shown that impractical and large machines would be needed to remove smoke.