Stare at smokers to stop them, Hong Kong health chief urges public

People successful Hong Kong should discourage smoking by staring astatine anyone who lights up successful areas wherever it is banned, the city's wellness caput has suggested.

Answering questions astir however to created a tobacco-free city, Lo Chung-mau besides said constabulary could not beryllium expected to drawback smokers.

Hong Kong is presently debating toughening its anti-tobacco measures.

Current rules prohibition smoking wrong restaurants, workplaces, indoor nationalist spaces and immoderate outdoor nationalist areas.

After launching a nationalist consultation to trim smoking successful Hong Kong, Prof Lo told chap lawmakers astatine a wellness gathering that the nationalist person a relation to play successful reducing smoking and that it would beryllium challenging for constabulary officers to drawback smokers successful the enactment successful time.

Prof Lo, who is besides a aesculapian doctor, said smoking was atrocious for the wellness of everyone and Hong Kong needed a "culture successful nine that radical are consenting to comply with the law".

"When the members of the nationalist spot radical smoking successful non-smoking areas, adjacent if nary instrumentality enforcement officers tin amusement up immediately, we tin look astatine the smokers."

Prof Lo told the sheet that instrumentality enforcement would beryllium improved. Breaking existent smoking rules is punishable with a good of up HK$1,500 ($192; £147).

But helium besides said erstwhile constabulary "arrive astatine the scene, the transgression whitethorn person already stopped" and truthful they are incapable to instrumentality action, going connected to suggest smoking rules should beryllium enforced similar etiquette implicit waiting for a bus.

"No 1 volition accidental it requires the instrumentality to compel radical to queue. Our nine is capable to make a civilization wherever radical volition comply with this regularisation of queuing erstwhile waiting for buses. I anticipation the full of nine tin physique a non-smoking culture."

Among the caller measures being considered by Hong Kong's authorities are banning radical calved aft a definite twelvemonth from buying baccy products and importantly expanding the taxation connected a packet of cigarettes.