[Intl-tobacco] Hong Kong Progress; China Challenges

[robert weissman]

[snip]


"The tobacco industry is like a rat -- always finding another lair when
its old nest is discovered; these companies find other new markets, like
China, when they are hounded out of old markets, like the United
States," said a member of Hong Kong anti-smoking lobby Clear the Air.

[snip]

Unfortunately, China's response has been to embolden its own tobacco
trade. Domestic tobacco companies are restructuring the industry,
eliminating more than 200 of the 300 cigarette brands to strengthen
brand names.

Further denting hopes has been China's lowering of taxes on imported
cigarettes after entering the World Trade Organization (news - web
sites) in late 2001, reducing them to 25 percent from 65.

[snip]

AFP Features
AFP
Smoking bans divide along poverty lines in Asia

Sun Nov 21, 1:15 PM ET


HONG KONG (AFP) - An ash tray on a table outside the doorway of downtown
Hong Kong's Dublin Jack Irish bar overspills with stubbed out cigarette
ends and ash.

While many of the patrons in the bar are smokers, this ash tray on the
sidewalk outside is the closest they'll get to a cigarette while
enjoying the bar's chilled Guinness.

"You can smoke all you like outside but you'll be thrown out if you try
to light up inside," says Noel Smyth, managing director of the group
that owns the popular bar.

Sandwiched within the bustling SoHo nightlife neighbourhood, Smyth's pub
made local history on August 1 when it became the first in this southern
Chinese enclave to ban smoking.

Smyth says the decision to go smoke-free was made on purely commercial
considerations to differentiate the bar from the scores of new
hostelries that have opened nearby since it threw its doors open in 1998.

But a law expected to be tabled early next year -- one that has already
been given the backing of the city's political leadership -- will soon
make it illegal for anyone to smoke in any place of work, including bars
and restaurants.

It's a bill that has been 20 years in the making, but one that will add
Hong Kong to a growing list of developed countries in Asia, including
Australia, New Zealand and South Korea (news - web sites) that have
introduced or are considering legislation to ban smoking in public places.

Hong Kong's imminent ban is particularly welcome as it, like many other
initiatives here, will be seen a testing ground for a similar ban in
mainland China, the country with the world's most smokers and the market
widely see as the last-gasp of hope for the ailing tobacco industry.

"The tobacco industry is like a rat -- always finding another lair when
its old nest is discovered; these companies find other new markets, like
China, when they are hounded out of old markets, like the United
States," said a member of Hong Kong anti-smoking lobby Clear the Air.

"This law in Hong Kong will hopefully lead to similar laws being rolled
out in China, and another of the rat's lairs will be destroyed."

Tobacco addiction has reached chronic levels in Asia, where some
estimates suggest almost half the world's 1.4 billion smokers live.

That figure looks unlikely to be reduced any time soon with the World
Health Organisation warning in 2002 that some 105 million youngsters
were at risk of dying from smoking related illnesses and 50,000
teenagers were taking up the habit each day.

In a report it complained that tax on cigarettes was not high enough to
have a deterrent effect: packs in China can cost as little as 25 US
cents. It also criticised advertising for glamorising the habit.

However, as with any social ill in the region, the biggest impediments
to redressing the problem are based on poverty levels.

"Over the past few decades smoking rates in developed countries have
decreased, but this decrease has been replaced by an alarming increase
in smoking rates in developing countries," the WHO's 2002 report states.

"Approximately 60 percent of today's smokers live in the developing
world. If the tobacco industry continues its aggressive marketing and
the trend maintains its course, it will continue to widen the gap
between rich and poor."

Poverty compounds the smoking habit because it prevents people from
being equipped through education with an understanding of its dangers.



Most of China's estimated 350 million smokers, for instance, are poorly
educated, rural peasants, among whom there is little understanding of
smoking's imnpact on health.

The same is true of the 250 million people the WHO estimates smoke in India.

Smoking also diverts scarce family funds away from vital food purchases,
increasing hunger and malnutrition, the WHO says.

However, even if legislation was in place many argue that the laws would
be impossible to enforce, epecially in larger nations where isolated
poor communities have little or no contact with central authorities.

Whether legislation is taken seriously or not is another potential
minefield, as is evident in India where public smoking bans introduced
in May this year are openly flouted on the streets of the capital New Delhi.

Mindful of such impediments, the tiny Himalayan kingdon of Bhutan has
taken a drastic step to ensure its public smoking ban is observed: it
has just banned outright the sale of all tobacco products.

"We had declared in the World Health Assembly that we would be the first
country in the world to be smoke-free. We hope with the initiative
others would also follow," Sangay Thinley, secretary in Bhutan's health
ministry, told AFP after the law was passed.

Despite the obstacles, there is a growing acceptance among national
health leaders that the dangers of smoking must be addressed, if only
because of its impact on the economy in health costs: the almost 50
percent of Japanese men and 10 percent of women who smoke clock up a
staggering 1.3 trillion yen (12.6 billion dollars) in smoking-related
health bills each year.

In the Philippines, where smoking is banned in parts of the capital
Manila, Dr Jessica de Leon, a member of the Tobacco Control Management
Team of the Department of Health (DOH), has publicly described smoking
as a "silent, escalating and psycho-social killer" and called for a
total ban.

Back in Hong Kong, having all but won the local campaign, the
anti-tobacco lobby is turning its attention to China, which most agree
will be a key battle ground, albeit one where the odds are well stacked
against prohibition.

Not only does it account for a quarter of all the world's smokers,
according to the WHO, but China is also the world's largest producer of
tobacco. Global giants such as Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco and British
American Tobacco are pushing to get a slice of the action.

Unfortunately, China's response has been to embolden its own tobacco
trade. Domestic tobacco companies are restructuring the industry,
eliminating more than 200 of the 300 cigarette brands to strengthen
brand names.

Further denting hopes has been China's lowering of taxes on imported
cigarettes after entering the World Trade Organization (news - web
sites) in late 2001, reducing them to 25 percent from 65.

"Taking on Hong Kong is one thing, but China? It would take a brave
man," said Smyth.