It is timely that we take stock of our tobacco control efforts on World No Tobacco Day (May 31).
Singapore has one of the toughest smoking control laws in the world, yet its smoking rate continues to climb, from 12.6 per cent in 2004 to 14.3 per cent in 2010.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s smoking rate fell to a historic low of 11.1 per cent in 2010.
One of the reasons attributed to the success of Hong Kong’s tobacco control efforts is the setting up of a dedicated team of tobacco control enforcement personnel by the government, with the support of the Hong Kong Police Department, to carry out enforcement of smoking bans. Fines were raised to HK$1,500 (S$244) for each smoking offence. Last year, Hong Kong’s tobacco control office carried out enforcement action against 8,198 smoking offences.
I agree with experts to raise the legal age for smoking from 18 to 21 to deter young men from lighting up during national service - that is the proposal a non-profit organisation submitted to government agencies early last month.
Sata CommHealth chief executive K. Thomas Abraham noted that it was common for young people to pick up smoking during NS, sometimes due to peer pressure. He said: 'If we push the legal age up to 21, most people would have finished their NS by then.'
He also observed that more young women had started smoking, without providing figures.
According to the 2010 National Health Survey, the proportion of smokers among young Singaporeans aged 18 to 29 stood at 16.3 per cent in 2010 - a 33 per cent increase from 12.3 in 2004.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) started publishing the number of smoking offenders nabbed in 2011 and issued 3,800 fines last year. Many smokers defy public smoking bans as enforcement remains lax. Managers of buildings also do not take action against smoking offenders, even though there are stiff penalties for failing to intervene and report such cases.
The NEA should focus on tightening enforcement lest it becomes the weakest link in our multi-agency fight against tobacco.
LIU
Editor's Note: Being a smoker myself, it is very interesting to note that the sale of E-cigarette (Electronic Cigarette) is actually banned in our country. It is supposedly healthier for the body (Only nicotine and water vapour present if i am not wrong) and safer (no fire hazard at all).
There are many speculations that the ban is because it is harder to tax than normal cigarettes and the government is actually making so much money from taxing tobacco companies. What do you think?