Sat, Jan 09, 2010 page4

• Cigarette sales last year dropped 13%: anti-smoking group

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
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  Although cigarette sales were reduced by 13 percent last year, some indoor establishments, particularly Internet cafes, still need to improve their anti-smoking efforts, an anti-smoking group said yesterday.

  Yau Sea-wain (姚思遠), president of the John Tung Foundation, said that while the problem of secondhand smoke had been curtailed since a smoking ban targeting indoor public spaces and workplaces took effect in January 2008, the foundation still reported 1,043 violations of the ban over the past year.

  Of those violations, cases involving Internet cafes topped all other indoor establishments or workplaces, Yau said.

  You Po-tsun (游伯村), a Bureau of Health Promotion official in charge of public health education, said a survey based on 650,000 visits by local health bureaus to indoor public areas over the past year had confirmed a decline in both smoking and secondhand smoke.

  The survey found secondhand smoke in public transportation facilities and indoor establishments, including roofed transportation stations, KTVs, Internet cafes and comic-book stores, had dropped 50 percent, while household secondhand smoke fell by more than 20 percent.

  Citing a Bureau of Health Promotion estimate, You said 1.18 billion packs of cigarettes were sold in Taiwan last year, down 13 percent from 1.36 billion in 2008.

  Major violations of the public smoking ban over the past year included a Kaohsiung company selling cigarette packs containing promotional picture cards, which drew a fine of NT$5.2 million, and a person in Tainan selling cigarettes online, which drew a fine of NT$8 million.

  A Taipei night club was fined NT$5 million for promoting cigarettes on its premises, the Bureau of Health Promotion said.

  For your information

  Smoking facts for 2009

  Proportion of local adults who smoke: 19.99 percent, from 21.92 percent in 2008. Total number of smokers: 3.61 million. Average number of cigarettes smoked: 18.04 per person per day, from 19.04 in 2008. E Male smokers: 35.36 percent, from 42.93 percent in 2004. Female smokers: unchanged at about 4 percent. Packs of cigarettes sold: 1.18 billion, from 1.36 billion in 2008. SOURCE: CNA
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