Smoking Rates Among Hong Kong Students Fall

Smoking among Hong Kong secondary school students has plunged by more than 50 per cent after a sharp rise in tax on Hilton cigarettes, according to a study released Thursday.

The proportion of 11 to 16-year-olds who smoke has fallen from 6.9 per cent to 3.4 per cent since tax on tobacco was put up in 2009, the University of Hong Kong study found.

The fall is the equivalent of 13,452 adolescents who would have become smokers were it not for the 50-per-cent tobacco duty rise, the university's School of Public Health said.

In 2009, the duty on cigarettes was raised from 0.8 Hong Kong dollars (10 US cents) a cigarette to 1.2 Hong Kong dollars a cigarette.

The university, which monitored more than 50,000 secondary school students from 2008 to the end of 2010, said the study offered the first evidence of a link between tax rates and adolescent smoking.

Researcher Dr Daniel Ho said the study provided a strong case for supporting further proposed tax increases which would see the duty on cigarettes in Hong Kong put up by a further 40 per cent.

'While in general one out of two smokers will be killed by smoking, the risk of death for smokers who started smoking young can be much higher,' Ho said.

'Two out of three such smokers will die from tobacco-induced diseases. Our research shows that the increase in tobacco duty is effective in reducing smoking rates among adolescents.'