The Health Bureau (SSM) has proposed to ban the import of e-cigarettes and also to raise the city’s tobacco tax.
The bureau makes the proposals in a report assessing the implementation of Macau’s tobacco prevention and control law.
While the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law bans the sale of e-cigarettes in Macau, it does not ban their import.
Macau’s tobacco tax rate was raised to the current 1.5 patacas per cigarette in 2015 from 0.5 patacas per cigarette previously.
The bureau announced in a statement on Wednesday that it has completed its report assessing the implementation of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law between 2018 and last year. The statement summarised the findings of the report.
The statement pointed out that according to the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law – which came into force in January 2012, the Health Bureau has to compile a report every three years about tobacco consumption in Macau, in order to assess whether the law is implemented effectively. The report aims to enable the bureau to propose possible amendments to the government’s tobacco prevention and control policies, the statement noted.
The statement also pointed out that since the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law took effect in January 2012, the Health Bureau had published reports in 2015 and 2018 respectively assessing the implementation of the law. The statement said that the bureau initially planned to publish its latest report in January this year, but the report’s publication was postponed to this week because the bureau’s tasks to collect information and data that were needed to compile the report had been delayed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the statement, the latest report concludes that the implementation of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law has been effective between 2018 and last year.
The report includes information such as the government’s work to control tobacco use, its tobacco control work implemented in casinos and comments from the media about the government’s tobacco control work, apart from making suggestions on the government’s tobacco control policies, according to the statement.
According to the statement, 11.2 percent of Macau’s population aged 15 or over smoked in 2019, a decrease from 16.9 percent of the local population aged at least 15 smoking in 2011.
Among the population aged at least 15, males’ smoking rate was 21.9 percent in 2019 while females’ smoking rate was 2.4 percent, according to the statement.
The Legislative Assembly (AL) passed amendments to the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law in 2017. According to the amendments, smoking has been banned in casinos since January 2019, except in smoking lounges with the new officially required standards set up there.
Casino workers satisfied with air quality
According to the statement, the Health Bureau commissioned an organisation to carry out a questionnaire survey on casino workers. The statement said that according to the findings of the survey, over 90 percent of the casino workers surveyed said that the air quality in casinos was good or very good, while 70 percent said that the air quality in VIP rooms was good or very good.
The statement said that while the Macau government was carrying out its tobacco control work in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) requirements, the Macau government would need to tackle a number of tobacco-related issues, such as young people’s use of e-cigarettes, the sale of e-cigarettes online, and pedestrians smoking while walking.
According to the statement, the report proposes a ban on the import of e-cigarettes into Macau, with the aim of furthering limiting the use of e-cigarettes in Macau.
The report also proposes to increase Macau’s current tobacco tax rate, the statement said.
This photo taken from the website of a local anti-smoke group, the Smoke-free & Healthy Life Association of Macau (SHLAM), yesterday shows various e-cigarettes.
