Macau creates gray area

Starting from January, tobacco smoking is to be banned within 10 meters of Macau’s bus stops, according to a story in The Macau Daily Times.

The Health Bureau (SSM) director, Lei Chin Ion, said the SSM would co-ordinate with the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) to delineate the boundaries of non-smoking areas.

According to Lei, the border will be marked with a gray line to make it easy for the public and law enforcement officers to identify the tobacco-free areas.

‘Related work’ is said to have started already and is due to be completed before the end of the year.

Asked whether a person passing a bus stop while smoking would be performing an illegal act, Lei said that such a person should put out their cigarette before entering a smoke-free zone. Currently, he said, people were unable to avoid second-hand smoke.

At the same time, Lei admitted that smoking was not a crime and that it was difficult to put an end to it. The government could only try its best to control smoking through public education and enhanced law enforcement.

According to the SSM, in most of the world, law enforcement can reduce the use of tobacco by only about 20 percent. The remaining 80 percent mainly stems from publicity and education.

The SSM said that it would continue to conduct anti-smoking inspections.

In addition, the bureau said that some tobacco-control associations would use Facebook and WeChat, along with other new media sources, to collect the public’s reports of cases of illegal smoking.