Hong Kong hires smoking ban enforcers
The government of Hong Kong has hired a team of ‘tobacco inspectors’, who will patrol public transport centers ensuring that no one is smoking. The step is intended to reinforce Hong Kong’s ban on smoking in public places.
Almost 100 enforces will be on the lookout for smokers. Culprits will face a 1,500 Hong Kong dollar ban (approximately £130).
Hong Kong has one of the strictest anti-smoking policies in the world. The country introduced a smoking ban in 2007, which extended to shops, public transport (including terminals), lifts, theatres and other indoor buildings. A 300% tax has also been levied on cigarettes, and citizens have been educated through schools and public service announcements. These measures have proved massively successful, with smoking levels having dropped from 23% in 1982, to just 12% in 2008.
Hong Kong’s anti-smoking achievements could serve as a big inspiration for neighboring China, where smoking is still incredibly common. Around 30% of all smokers worldwide live in China, a figure that is equivalent to the entire US population. Despite implementing some anti-smoking campaigns, the Chinese government has made little headway against the problem. Every year one million people die in China as a result of smoking, while more than half of all male doctors smoke.
Until last year, the Chinese government even seemed to be encouraging smoking, through a policy that required government workers to smoke a certain number of cigarettes each year in order to boost the economy. After criticism last July this rule was removed, but it indicates that even in recent times, the government has not been taking the threat from smoking as seriously as it should be taken.
Smoking is not the only health problem that China is struggling with. This week it has been announced that China is dealing with a diabetes epidemic, which experts are blaming on obesity.
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Related posts:
- Obesity, smoking timebombs in China
- Obesity butts out smoking
- Poll shows support for smoking ban
- Anti-smoking groups want crackdown
- California Nears Park, Beach Smoking Ban
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oops, “people”