Hong Kong aims to ban flavoured cigarettes but will it cut smoking rates?
- Measure is among 10 proposed by health authorities, but young smokers who use the products doubt ban will work as intended
Banning flavoured cigarettes in Hong Kong might cut the amount of tobacco products available on the market by about half, but young smokers and female ones say such a prohibition is unlikely to make them quit.
Yan Ng, a 27-year-old clerk, was one of dozens of people smoking in an outdoor area in Causeway Bay on Friday afternoon, puffing on a blueberry-flavoured cigarette.
Ng, who has smoked for 14 years, said she would have “no idea what to do” if the ban came into effect, but she said she did not want to give up the habit.
She preferred flavoured products as they refreshed her and carried less odour than regular cigarettes, adding that many of her friends felt the same.
“Not many people like non-flavoured cigarettes because they are not effective in boosting people’s mood,” she said. “It is unfair to only ban some kinds of the products.”