From April 30, Hong Kong will ban anyone from holding alternative smoking products such as e-cigarettes, herbal cigarettes and heated cigarettes in public places, according to the Hong Kong Government’s Department of Health. Consumers are also liable to a minimum fine of HK $3,000 and a maximum fine of HK $50,000 and six months’ imprisonment. Hong Kong’s Department of Health also made it clear that there would be no transitional period and no“First-offence exemption”.
Hong Kong has banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes for four years. The new rules are a further tightening of the original basis: From a ban on the import and sale of e-cigarettes, extended to a comprehensive ban on possession and use in public places.
Why are the regulations so strict? On the one hand, it is in line with international trends. In recent years, many countries continue to tighten tobacco policy, and even put forward the goal of“Smoke-free generation”, tobacco control and public health governance is becoming more and more strict.
E-cigarettes, on the other hand, are essentially“Heating and atomizing” chemicals, and the harm has long been underestimated. According to the Department of Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, people who smoke heated cigarettes have a 50% higher incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a 30% higher risk of stroke. E-cigarettes are no less harmful than traditional cigarettes.
Lo Chong-mao, director of the medical and Health Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, said that because e-cigarettes contain fruit flavors that are different from those of traditional cigarettes, this has led to smokers and those next to them not feeling serious, e-cigarettes may be considered less toxic, but this misleads many people.
Hong Kong has gone one step further by making possession illegal.