Memo to HK smokers: Cough up
HONG KONG, China -- Hong Kong smokers beware -- your legislators haven't finished with you just yet.
Smokers in the "City of Life" may soon be issued with on-the-spot fines for lighting up in designated smoke-free areas.
If implemented, the penalties would complement Hong Kong's imminent bans of smoking in work places, bars and restaurants -- to be enforced in 2006.
At present, people who break anti-smoking laws can be fined HK$5,000 ($640) and summoned to court.
But an on-the-spot fine system would help avoid legal actions.
"People would be caught more easily with a simple system like fixed penalties so it would be a stronger deterrent," Hong Kong legislator Lee Cheuk-yan was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post newspaper.
Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr York Chow backed the legislator, saying added measures could help turn Hong Kong into a smoke-free city.
"The Government has no plan to change the existing HK$5,000 penalty for people who smoke in non-smoking areas ... (but) proposals such as a fixed-penalty system will be considered," he said on the government Web site news.gov.hk.
In recent years, Hong Kong has become increasingly serious about its anti-smoking drive, including using images of the burning World Trade Center in a 2001 advertising campaign.
