China News Service, Macau, April 21 (Reporter Long Tuyou) The Health Bureau of the Macau Special Administrative Region Government announced on the 21st that it has completed the "Prevention and Control of Smoking System" Follow-up and Evaluation Report 2018-2020.
The report believes that the "Prevention and Control of Smoking System" (hereinafter referred to as the New Tobacco Control Law) has been implemented satisfactorily, and the overall tobacco control policy is in line with the requirements of the World Health Organization. It also recommends a ban on e-cigarette imports and an increase in cigarette tobacco taxes to reduce smoking among the population of Macau rate.
The content of the report includes tobacco use, casino tobacco control work, tobacco control work analysis and recommendations, etc., and believes that the Macau SAR government promotes tobacco control through a multi-pronged approach such as legislation, law enforcement, education and publicity, and encouraging smoking cessation. The implementation of the new tobacco control law is satisfactory. , In line with the relevant requirements of the implementation guidelines of the World Health Organization "Framework Convention on Tobacco Control".
The report also announced the results of the survey on tobacco use among the population of Macau.
In 2019, the tobacco use rate of men and women in Macau was 21.9% and 2.4%, respectively. The overall tobacco use rate of the population aged 15 and above dropped to 11.2%, which was 33.7% lower than before the new tobacco control law came into effect in 2011, reaching the World Health Organization initiative. The goal of tobacco control.
Regarding smoking control in casinos, starting from January 1, 2019, all other indoor areas in casinos must be completely non-smoking, except for smoking rooms that have been established and permitted under the new standards.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of smoking control in casinos, the Health Bureau commissioned an agency to conduct a questionnaire survey. Among the gaming practitioners interviewed, more than 90% agreed that the air quality in the casino work area was "good", "very good" or "very good". .
The report pointed out that issues such as young people's smoking of e-cigarettes and online sales of tobacco products still require continuous attention.
It is recommended to strengthen the promotion of tobacco hazard messages to the public in the future, and to do a good job in tobacco control related publicity and education; at the same time, it is recommended to ban the import of e-cigarettes and increase the cigarette tobacco tax to reduce the smoking rate of the population of Macau.
According to the provisions of the new Tobacco Control Law, the Health Bureau must compile a data sheet containing tobacco consumption in Macau every three years so that it can make appropriate recommendations for changes in the prevention and control of smoking.
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