Health | 2.1 million smoking inspections carried out

More than 2.1 million smoking violation inspections have been conducted since the Law on Prevention and Control of Smoking entered into force in January 1, 2012, according to data released by the Health Bureau. This amounts to an average of about 780 per day.

Following an amendment to the law, starting from January 1, 2019, it is forbidden to smoke in all enclosed public spaces, except authorized rooms, which were created at the airport and in casinos according to the new rules.

In the first half of this year, over 174,000 inspections have been carried out, or an average number of 966 daily inspections.

In addition, 2,941 complaints were registered, of which 2,923 relate to illegal cigarette smokers, 17 cases refer to unlawful tobacco product labels and one relates to the unlawful sale of tobacco products.

With regards to accusations against illegal smokers, the overwhelming majority of violators were male, accounting for about 93.9% of the total.

According to data provided by the Health Bureau, some 2,368 fines were issued by the authorities for illegal smoking during the first half of the year, of which about four in five were actually paid.

Concerning the type of establishment where the highest number of fines were issued, about one- quarter of the total were issued in casinos, 17% in parks, garden and leisure areas, and 11% at the airport. DB