Tobacco Control Office - Department of Health · Tobacco Control Office Smoking is the largest single preventable cause of death and diseases in Hong Kong. In February 2001, the Department

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Tobacco Control Office

Smoking is the largest single preventable cause of death

and diseases in Hong Kong. In February 2001, the

Department of Health established a Tobacco Control Office

(TCO) to coordinate and enhance Government's tobacco

control efforts, i.e., through a step-by-step approach,

discourage smoking, contain the proliferation of tobacco

use, and protect the public from exposure to secondhand

smoke to the maximum extent possible.

The mission of the TCO is to nurture a smoke-free

culture in Hong Kong through intersectoral collaboration

and community mobilisation. The priority functions of

the TCO include:

� to educate and assist staff of public premises to

comply with and enforce the Smoking (Public

Health) Ordinance;

� to monitor the level of compliance with the Smoking

(Public Health) Ordinance;

� to enhance the smoking cessation service provided

by the Department of Health;

� to conduct anti-smoking health education activities;

and

� to assist the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau in

reviewing tobacco control policy and legislation.

In 2003, the TCO conducted the Security Guard Training

Workshop on Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance and

Smoke-free Workplace Workshops to promote smoke-

free messages to the public.

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The target group of the Security Guard Training

Workshops was frontline management and security

guards, of statutory no-smoking areas. The workshops

aimed at providing legal knowledge on tobacco control,

educating and assisting the above group to enforce

the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap.371).

One hundred and twelve Security Guard Training

Workshops were conducted in 2003. Sixty-three

property management companies were involved with

over 2 000 attendance.

Smoke-free Workplace Workshops were organised to

encourage and empower companies and organisations

to implement smoke-free policy. Over 1 800 company

staff from 592 companies took part in 80 smoke-free

workplace workshops conducted in 2003.

The TCO continued to participate in the "Smart Teen

Challenge Camp" at Wong Cheuk Hang Police Training

School. A total of six workshops were conducted with

404 students attended the course. On the other hand,

TCO conducted 28 Anti-smoking Seminars to students

of the Vocational Training Council. A total of 2 116

students attended the seminars.

Staff of the TCO visited 463 restaurants with seating

capacity of more than 200 in 2003. Assistance was

given to help restaurant staff to understand and comply

with the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance. At the

same time, over 2 000 restaurants with less than 200

seats were visited to foster restaurant owners' support

in tobacco control. In addition, 111 shopping malls were

visited to educate and assist managers and staff to

comply with and enforce the Ordinance, and 360

tobacco retail outlets were inspected for compliance with

the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance.

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TCO also handled complaints against tobacco related

matters. The office received 495 complaints from the

public or other organisations in 2003. For publication

screening, over 2 700 issues of printed publications were

screened and 27 tobacco advertisements were found.

Warning letters were issued to the publishers and the

contravention was rectified.

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TCO conducted 91 roving exhibitions in shopping malls,

public transport stations, housing estates and exhibition

centres in 2003. Over 17 000 persons were provided

with anti-smoking health education on a one-to-one

basis.

Since November 2002, a TCO website (http://www.tco.

gov.hk) was on line as a convenient channel to

communicate with the public, organisations and tobacco

advocates. Over 50 000 visits to the web pages were

recorded in 2003.

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To enhance the smoking cessation service of the

Department of Health, nicotine replacement therapy

(NRT) was provided in four general out-patient clinics.

In 2003, 412 clients joined the NRT programme,

contributing to a total of 1 185 recruitments during the

period from September 2001 to June 2003. The overall

26-week and 52-week smoking cessation rate as at June

2003 was 40.9% and 33.9% respectively. As the general

out-patient clinics were transferred under the

management of the Hospital Authority in July 2003, the

enhanced smoking cessation service was provided by

the Education and Training Centre in Family Medicine

and three families clinics since September 2003. To

complement the smoking cessation service, TCO also

operates a smoking cessation hotline. A total of 1 495

telephone calls were received in 2003.

TCO also assisted the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau

in proposing a package of legislative amendments to

the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance to strengthen

the tobacco control framework in Hong Kong.

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