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Public supportive of no-smoking proposals, survey reveals

The majority of the general public agree that smoking should be prohibited in all restaurants, and most of them believe that the Government's proposal to prohibit smoking in all restaurants can help protect public's health, a public opinion survey reveals.

The survey, commissioned by the Health and Welfare Bureau and conducted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, interviewed 1,017 respondents from July 23 to 27, 2001. Respondents were randomly selected from the Cantonese speaking population of Hong Kong aged 15 or above.

Expansion of statutory no-smoking areas

The survey finds that 81.6 per cent of the respondents agree with the proposal to prohibit smoking in all restaurants.

A total of 88.1 per cent of the respondents agree that smoking should be prohibited in all indoor workplaces; 98.1 per cent agree with the proposal to prohibit smoking in all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools; and 92.9 per cent agree that indoor premises of universities and tertiary institutions should also ban smoking.

When asked whether smoking should be prohibited in all karaokes and bars, more than half of the respondents - 60.4 per cent and 51.4 per cent respectively - agree with this proposal. 18.9 per cent however disagree that smoking should be totally banned in karaokes, while 23.8 per cent disagree that it should be banned in bars.

A spokesman for the Health and Welfare Bureau said, "The survey findings suggest that the majority of the Hong Kong people are supportive of banning smoking in indoor public areas. They are also aware of the harmful effects of passive smoking to their health."

Further control on tobacco advertisement and promotion

Regarding tobacco advertisement and promotion, more than half of the respondents agree with the proposals to forbid the display of tobacco advertisement at licensed hawker stalls and retail outlets, and to prohibit the sale of a tobacco product in association with any other merchandise. 46.6 per cent believe that the use of sponsorship as a means for tobacco advertisement should be forbidden while 28.7 per cent of them disagree.

Health warning on tobacco products

The majority of the respondents, or 76.6 per cent of the total sample, supported the introduction of health warnings with pictorial and graphic contents on tobacco product packages.

Common practices in choice of restaurants related to no-smoking arrangements

Among the 178 current smokers in the sample, 67.1 per cent of them said they had never refused to dine in a restaurant simply because it was a smoke-free restaurant.

The survey also finds that 44.1 per cent of the respondents will choose an entirely smoke-free restaurant and 28.9 per cent will choose a restaurant with a no-smoking area. 26.1 per cent have no preference. Only one per cent said they would choose a restaurant without no-smoking arrangement.

82.1 per cent of the total sample believe that the Government's proposal to prohibit smoking in all restaurants can help protect public's health.  While 31.9 per cent of the respondents believe that prohibiting smoking in all restaurants would take away a person's rights, 58 per cent said it would not.

When asked whether they believe that smoking is hazardous to the smokers' health, 92.1 per cent of the respondents agree. About the same proportion of the respondents (91.5%) also believe that passive smoking is hazardous to health.

Details of the opinion survey are available at the Health and Welfare Bureau's web site at http://www.info.gov.hk/hwb.

End/Wednesday, September 5, 2001

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