Smoking ban at transport interchanges from Dec 1
Updated: 2010-07-10 06:35
By Joy Li(HK Edition)
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A man smokes at a transport interchange in Tai Po Friday. The government plans to extend the smoking ban to cover 131 transport interchanges from December 1. The move is aimed at further protecting the public from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. At present, smoking is banned at 91 indoor and covered transport interchanges. Edmond Tang / China Daily |
131 additional PTIs to become no-smoking areas with automatic HK$1,500 fines
Smokers will no longer be able to light up and puff away at 131 additional public transport interchanges, aka bus terminals (PTIs), later this year. As of December 1, the interchanges will become no smoking areas, under the "Smoking (Public Health) (Designation of No Smoking Areas) (Amendment) Notice 2010" gazetted by the government on Friday.
The extension of 129 open-air PTIs and two others covered by superstructures aims at increasing protection for the public at large from second hand smoke, said a spokesman for the Tobacco Control Office, the government body under the Department of Health in charge of the smoking ban. "Subject to the deliberations of the Legislative Council, the smoking ban will come into effect on December 1 of this year," said the spokesman.
Government documentation for the extended ban is available for public inspection at the Land Registry and Tobacco Control offices.
Under the fixed penalty system, anyone who smokes or carries a lighted cigarette, cigar or pipe in no-smoking areas or on public transportation will be handed a HK$1,500 fixed penalty citation. Since September of last year, the Tobacco Control Office has issued over 150 penalty notices at no-smoking PTIs, describing enforcement as "largely smooth".
Designation of PTIs as no-smoking areas is being carried out in phases. The Smoking Ordinance gives the Director of Health the authority to designate no-smoking areas at terminals where two or more modes of public transport converge. The policy direction, under the current arrangement, has been moving from in-door PTIs to open-air PTIs gradually. On January 1, 2007 and September 1, 2009, 43 in-door PTIs and 48 PTIs with superstructures became smoke-free.
The spokesperson cited a survey conducted in January this year, which showed that 95 percent of the public supported a smoking ban at PTIs and about three quarters reported less exposure to secondhand smoke in PTIs already subject to the smoking ban.
The spokesman called on smokers to quit smoking for the sake of their own health and that of others. Smoking cessation clinics also are available to the public through the Integrated Smoking Cessation hotline at 1833183.
China Daily
(HK Edition 07/10/2010 page1)