After very short public discussions of the topic, Hong Kong bans E-cigarettes. The official reasons by the responsible Chief Executive are health impacts. The tobacco industry heavily criticizes. The main counter argument of the proponents is that less than 10% of the population of Hong Kong are regularly consuming tobacco products.
With a meaningless small impact on the health of the population the tobacco industry tries to justify their arguments against this law. In fact alcohol or certain drugs are more or at least as important and as much of a problem as e-cigarettes. Yet, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive cites health issues and general health impacts as one of the main reasons for this e-cigarette ban.
All alternative smoking products affected
Besides e-cigarettes other alternative smoking devices are banned too. This means HNB tobacco products are forbidden as well. Not only is the act of vaping or smoking with those devices illegal. Also the possession is forbidden. The main reason cited here is to protect teenagers who might possess alternative smoking products like that. Critics see an arbitrary act of loss of personal freedom.
The bill is final
Since this ban is active now it is not very likely that things change anytime soon. The Coalition on Tobacco Affairs comments the ban with the following sentence:
A full ban of e-cigarettes will only make black market business more popular […]
This sounds like critics won’t become silent about this topic as it seems to be a controversial discussion.
