Bill on tobacco up for public consultation

It looks like the approval of the bill on tobacco control will take longer that it was expected. The second standing committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) will launch a new one month public consultation period, starting from Monday.
Lawmakers want to know exactly what residents think about the Government’s proposal to ban smoking in public areas.
“The Government have already made their own public consultation, but that made by the AL follows different procedures. From Monday, we will ask people to give us their opinions though publication in the Chinese, Portuguese and English media,” the spokesman of the second standing committee, Chan Chak Mo told reporters.
The committee will schedule a meeting to listen to the Government’s ideas again, but the exact date of that meeting is yet to be announced.
Chan Chak Mo said there is the possibility to extend the public consultation period. Actually, the lawmaker made a lot of comparisons between the tobacco act and the labour law’s legislative procedures. That means the article by article debate and vote of the law banning smoking in public places may take longer.
“We hope to finish all the works within this year, but we also have the example of the labour law which took a lot of time,” he stressed, saying that there are a lot of commercial interests involved–from the tobacco industry to the casinos.
One of the strongest criticisms made by the lawmakers of the Government’s proposal is that it includes exceptions. Exceptions have been established for casinos, massage lounges, saunas and dance halls while the ban will be in place in restaurants, hotels, bars and karaokes, cinemas, schools and universities, maritime terminals and airports, museums, and parks and gardens managed by the Government.
“Why should it be allowed to create designated smoking areas in airports and not in the other places? What about the casinos? It looks like there are two different criteria set down in this law,” Chan Chak Mo pointed out.
Last week, while the bill was unanimously approved in principle, lawmakers had already voiced many doubts regarding the law’s enforcement. At that time, the director of the Health Bureau, Lei Chin Ion, said a new department would be created to include 70 workers, to take care of the new duties.
The new department will work jointly with four other public services: Public Security Police; the Civic and Municipal Bureau; the Health Bureau; and the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Still, the same question was raised at yesterday’s meeting: “Who will have competence to control the law enforcement? If someone sees a person violating the law, who should he call to submit the complaint?” Chan Chak Mo questioned.
The spokesman was concerned that there should be a balance between the law and the individual rights. “For that reason, we need to further discuss the subject with the Government,” he concluded.
“Since Macau is part of the World Health Organization, we have to establish this law. It is something we have to do. Even mainland China has to do it within two years,” he added.
According to the Government’s proposal, Maritime terminals and airports, universities and vocational training centres will all have designated smoking areas. Smokers in the workplace can only do so in appropriate outdoor areas.
Smokers who violate the restrictions may be subject to fines ranging from MOP400 to 600. If someone smokes or even lights a cigarette or other kind of tobacco product inside a health care facility, a school or any place that stores flammable products he risks a fine of MOP600. If caught smoking so in hotels, restaurants, parks or non-smoking rooms the fine will be MOP400.