Lawmakers pass bill to ban e-cigarettes

Lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that will ban the sale of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

The bill will also ban the import, manufacture, distribution and advertising of such smoking products in the SAR.

The government stressed the legislation is aimed at protecting people’s health, as the products contain harmful substances.

There were 32 votes in favour of the bill, three against and two abstentions.

Liberal Party’s Shiu Ka-fai, who had been campaigning against the bill, questioned whether it was sensible for the government to ban heated tobacco products.

He said the legislation would deprive adult smokers of the option to switch to what he described as less harmful products.

“We’re not banning conventional cigarettes now, so why are we banning heat-not-burn cigarettes? That’s something that does not make sense,” he said.

Speaking after the passage of the bill, health secretary Sophia Chan thanked lawmakers for their support and said the government is committed to further lowering the city’s smoking rate to five percent.

“We will start our work on going towards a tobacco endgame, as I think many legislators and the public would like to see a smoke-free Hong Kong. And in achieving that, we would have to set some targets and also timeline in achieving tobacco endgame,” she said.

“We will review our current tobacco control policies and we will focus our work on two aspects. One is to expand our non-smoking areas so that we can further protect people from exposure to second-hand smoke. And second is smoking cessation. We will try our very best to strengthen smoking cessation and capitalise on the newly set-up district health centres in the community.”

Chan said the bill will take effect six months later.