The policy was among 10 measures proposed by health authorities to help lower the city’s smoking rate to 7.8 per cent, with the government expecting the Legislative Council to pass them by the end of next year. In a reply to the Post, the Department of Health said the ban would cover conventional smoking products, which included “tobacco products used in water pipe smoking”.
Nicholas Chan*, a 25 year-old clerk who since 2021 has invested in two Causeway Bay bars that specialise in shisha, said his business might close down under the ban. “Flavours are what make shisha interesting,” he said. “There’s a chance that we will close the business as 80 per cent of sales will drop.
The only way to survive is to change to a pure bar business, but it is very competitive at this moment.” He suggested the government, if it insisted on implementing the ban, could allow for a transition period of two years for bars to adapt. As a regular shisha smoker for the past six years, he said he and many of his friends did not use conventional cigarettes.
“We like shisha because it creates an atmosphere for us to chat and drink,” he said, adding that the ban might encourage users to seek out the product at illegal venues that offered indoor smoking. Since 2007, indoor smoking has been outlawed in places such as bars and restaurants, which also applies to water pipe tobacco products. Smoking in outdoor areas of restaurants is still allowed.
Currently 9.1 per cent of Hongkongers ag.
