Opinion | Big Tobacco the only winner in Hong Kong move against e-cigarettes

The government is asking lawmakers to pass legislation against electronic cigarette products that will introduce a double standard into the city’s anti-smoking regime. The legislation would ban the supply and sale of e-cigarettes to try to close that possible route to addiction, especially among young people. The government rejected the option of regulating legal marketing and consumption, but it will continue to allow a legal regulated market in conventional cigarettes.

In public health terms that is illogical. The long-term effects of e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products and the like are unknown. Opinion is divided. Factual evidence of the lethal dangers of tobacco smoking abounds in our hospital wards. Public Health England, a government advisory body, recently broadcast an experiment showing how e-cigarettes are much less harmful than traditional cigarettes. The British Medical Association says e-cigarettes have potential benefits in reducing harm linked to smoking.

That is not to say that in isolation from other factors, a case cannot be made for combating nicotine addiction through e-cigarettes. Hong Kong claims a smoking rate of 10 per cent of the population, the lowest for decades. So long as the number of new addicts is less than the number of smokers who die or quit, the smoking rate may be expected to continue to decline, easing the social and economic burden of smoking-related illnesses, especially on the health system.

Six months in jail and HK$50,000 fine under e-cigarette ban bill

But the government’s concern addiction to e-cigarettes may lead young people to take up smoking would sound more sincere if transition to a more harmful product were not facilitated by its relatively permissive attitude to conventional smoking. The proposed blanket ban on e-cigarettes backed by fines and imprisonment is little more than a sideshow to the anti-smoking fiasco, characterised by blatant defiance of a ban in public places such as bars, derisory enforcement efforts, a lack of resources to police indoor and outdoor bans and, perhaps most egregious, immunity from prosecution for the owners and managers of offending premises. This is a key element. Penalties for breaches of the law against smoking and the ultimate threat of loss of licence could make a real difference.

These measures should be coupled with heavy annual increases in tobacco taxes, shown by past experience to be the most effective smoking deterrent. Personal use of electronic products will not be affected by the ban. But the proposed law against supply and sale is most likely to drive the e-cigarette trade underground, which undermines respect for the law. Smokers who have switched to ­e-cigarettes will revert to tobacco at the expense to public health. It’s a win-win for Big Tobacco, which has muscled in on alternative cigarette products.