HK health chief urges public to stare at smokers in non-designated areas

Hong Kong health chief Lo Chung Mau (pictured)'s recent remark has copped flak as he urged citizens to give smokers "disapproving stares" in non-designated areas, in an effort to create a tobacco-free city.

This comes as Lo said on a Legislative Council meeting last Friday that Hong Kong should establish a tobacco-free culture as he responded to questions raised by lawmaker Chan Wing Kwong. Lo suggested non-smokers to stare at smokers in a restaurant. “I don’t believe that person would ‘fight’ against so many people. Although this might be a rude example, we truly have to establish a tobacco-free culture,” Lo added.

When asked whether the tobacco control will upset travellers during their stay in Hong Kong, Lo said: “The smoke-free Hong Kong is a healthy reputation and I believe tourists don’t come to our city to buy cigarettes and smoke."

According to media intelligence firm CARMA, there has been a significant 49.1% negative mentions related to Lo's advice. “A considerable number of netizens have criticised Lo's choice of words as unprofessional and his approach as overly idealistic,” said Charles Cheung, CARMA’s HK GM.

Cheung added that many netizens shared memes from the movie Ip Man (葉問), which seem to reinforce Lo's statement that a smoker would be unable to "fight" against a large group of non-smokers. It is worth noting that Lo's suggestion has also been deemed bizarre by some international media outlets.

Last week, the government launched a public consultation on Vibrant, Healthy and Tobacco-free Hong Kong (《活力健康 無煙香港》), a series of tobacco control strategies to strive towards a smoke-free Hong Kong. The four major strategies in the consultation documents include regulating tobacco supply, suppressing tobacco demand, a ban on promotion, reducing attractiveness of smoking, expanding non-smoking areas, mitigating harm and enhancing education, supporting cessation.

Photo courtesy: YouTube channel @香港特別行政區立法會

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