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https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2186097/hong-kong-health-minister-sophia-chan-compares-e
Hong Kong/ Health & Environment

Hong Kong health minister Sophia Chan compares e-cigarettes to an epidemic as she defends coming ban

  • Availability of alternative products could encourage more teenagers to pick up smoking, secretary for food and health says

Hong Kong’s health minister likened the e-cigarette trend to an epidemic on Thursday, as she defended the government’s push to remove alternative cigarettes from the market, saying they posed new challenges to the authorities’ drive to deter teenagers from picking up smoking.

While seeking to prohibit the sale and supply of such products, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said, the administration was not pushing for a complete ban, as it was not trying to punish the users themselves.

The government announced on Wednesday that it planned to amend the Smoking Ordinance to ban any import, sale and promotion of new smoking products, including e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products and herbal cigarettes.

After a six-month window from the day the Legislative Council passes the bill, offenders could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail or a fine of HK$50,000 (US$6,370). Use of e-cigarettes will remain legal.

“We are very worried about these e-cigarettes and their associated health risks,” Chan said on an RTHK radio programme. “These products are usually portrayed as less harmful and helpful for those wanting to quit smoking, but a lot of research suggests they are still harmful to health.”

Chan said studies done overseas pointed to an unstoppable proliferation of e-cigarette use, with one American study even suggesting that the trend had become an epidemic.

There was a possibility that teenagers would be attracted by the packaging of these cigarettes, she added, presenting a challenge to the authorities’ attempts to lower the smoking population.

Critics of the bill argue that vapers may turn to traditional tobacco products. Photo: Winson Wong
Critics of the bill argue that vapers may turn to traditional tobacco products. Photo: Winson Wong

Chan said that after years of smoke control measures, the city’s smoking rate had dropped to about 10 per cent.

“Beyond the figure, it means lots of lives have been saved,” she said.

She played down the suggestion that the smoking rate, which tracks only traditional tobacco use, would increase after the new ban.

We will keep strengthening smoke control measures, and we hope that the smoking rate will drop to 7 per cent in 2025 Sophia Chan, health minister

“We will keep strengthening smoke control measures, and we hope that the smoking rate will drop to 7 per cent in 2025,” she said.

Tobacco industry representatives and other critics of the bill have argued that without a complete ban, vapers will not quit smoking, as they still have tobacco as an alternative.

Mr Au, an audience member on the same radio show, identified himself as a user of both e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco and asked why there was different treatment for the two products. He said he would switch back to traditional tobacco.

“Why don’t you just simply ban both of them?” Au asked. “Either you ban all tobacco-related products or allow sales of e-cigarettes.”

Chan responded that the policy was to prevent people from becoming vapers to regulate the smoking population.

She explained that the government was not trying to punish users and was seeking only to disincentivise the habit for city residents. Chan added that the administration would not rule out toughening the law if any loopholes were found.

There will be a three-month grace period after the law comes into effect. Photo: Winson Wong
There will be a three-month grace period after the law comes into effect. Photo: Winson Wong

The government will allow a grace period of three months after the new law is implemented, particularly when it comes to tourists. Visitors to the city will be able to voluntarily abandon their products in boxes placed at the city’s ports.

Hong Kong Vape Association vice-chairman Lam Mang-yu said he was disappointed by the government’s sudden move, adding that many business owners in the industry had complained that they could suffer losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

He urged the government to extend the transition window to a year before the law took effect so that businesses had time to sell their remaining stock and handle their tenancy agreements.

The new law will not spell out how many e-cigarette products one must possess to constitute an offence.

Chan explained that giving an exact amount could send the wrong signal to the public.

“Setting the permissible number of new smoking products would be viewed as an encouragement – ‘It’s OK to have a certain number of them but not go beyond' – we are definitely not hoping to send such a message,” she said.