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Tag: health

  • Engineer And Property Agent Fined For Selling E-Cigarettes Online

    Engineer And Property Agent Fined For Selling E-Cigarettes Online

    An engineer and a property agent who imported and sold electronic cigarettes online were fined a total of $31,000 yesterday.

    Francis Chue Kar Fatt, 33, was fined $16,000, while 32-year-old property agent Zhang Zhaoming, was fined $15,000 after they each pleaded guilty to 10 charges.

    Two of Chue’s charges were for obstructing an authorised officer by deleting the www.thaivape.com website and a PayPal account which housed the evidence to all the e-cigarette sales transactions.

    Another four were for selling and importing e-cigarettes with Zhang.

    Following online surveillance of online electronic cigarette peddlers, Health Sciences Authority officers raided the Woodlands home of Chue and his wife, Ms Rattikan Khamtong, a 29-year-old Thai national, on Jan 7, 2013, for allegedly offering e-cigarettes for sale on the website.

    They seized e-cigarettes, related peripherals and SingPost receipts.

    Investigations showed that Ms Khamtong instructed her husband to delete the website while officers were conducting the search. She gave him her username and password and he did it from his office laptop at his office at Land Transport Authority at Sin Ming Drive.

    On July 18, 2013, when HSA officers raided Zhang’s home in Sengkang, Chue deleted the PayPal account which contained e-cigarette sales transactions from the website.

    Investigations showed that despite knowing it was an offence to deal in e-cigarettes, Zhang was still keen on the business. He started the e-cigarette online business with Chue’s help sometime in June. They agreed on the terms of the business and a profit-sharing arrangement.

    The court heard that the goods were ordered online and payments made via Zhang’s credit card. The e-cigarettes were sold to customers at between $55 and $110 a set.

    A warrant for the arrest of Ms Khamtong was issued last month.

    Both men could have been fined up to $5,000 on each charge of selling or importing. For obstruction, Chue could have been fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed for up to 12 months per charge.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Import And Sale Of Emerging Tobacco Products Will Begin Dec 15

    Import And Sale Of Emerging Tobacco Products Will Begin Dec 15

    The import and sale of tobacco products such as smokeless cigarettes will be banned from Dec 15 this year, and the ban will be extended to cover more products such as oral snuff from August next year.

    Announced by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday, the move, which will be carried out in two phases, comes on the back of a ban on shisha last year, as part of efforts to clamp down on “emerging” tobacco products.

    The ban is a “pre-emptive measure to protect public health against the known and potential harms of such products”, said the MOH in a media release. It is also “aimed at ensuring that the targeted emerging tobacco products do not gain a foothold or become entrenched in the Singapore market”.

    The first phase of the ban targets emerging tobacco products currently not available in Singapore. They include smokeless cigars, smokeless cigarillos or smokeless cigarettes, dissolvable tobacco or nicotine.

    Any product containing nicotine or tobacco that may be used topically for application, by implant or injected into any parts of the body will also be banned, while any solution or substance where tobacco or nicotine is a constituent, that is intended to be used with an electronic nicotine delivery system or a vaporiser, commonly referred to as e-cigarettes, will also be banned. Tobacco-containing products, tobacco derivatives, or medicinal products registered under the Medicines Act are excluded from the ban.

    From Aug 1 next year, the ban will extend to emerging tobacco products already in the local market. “This is to allow for businesses to adjust their operating models and deplete their existing stocks of such products,” the MOH said. The affected products include nasal snuff, oral snuff, and gutkha, khaini and zarda, which are chewable tobacco products.

    The ban will be implemented via Section 15 of the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act. The Act was amended in 2010 to empower the Minister for Health to prohibit the import and sale of such emerging tobacco products. Since then, the authorities had been studying the implementation of the ban. This included ensuring the ban complies with Singapore’s international trade obligations, the MOH said.

    An undergraduate who declined to give his name said he tried khaini in Malaysia last year. “The ban doesn’t really affect me, if I really want to consume khaini, I’ll just cross the border to Malaysia and have it there,” said the 23-year-old, who has been smoking since he was 19.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • NEA Took Enforcement Action Against Tekka Market Stallholders For Improper Storage Of Fresh Meat

    NEA Took Enforcement Action Against Tekka Market Stallholders For Improper Storage Of Fresh Meat

    The National Environment Agency (NEA) said it has taken enforcement action 14 times against stall holders at Tekka Market for improper storage of fresh meat.

    NEA said under the Environment Public Health (Food Hygiene) Regulations, any person selling raw meat – such as pork, chicken and mutton – must store the raw meat in a chiller at all times. It said that stall holders who contravene this regulation face a fine of up to S$2,000.

    During a recent visit by Channel NewsAsia to Tekka Market, customers were found to be allowed to touch poultry meat, which had been left out of the chillers.

    “I thought authorities said that meat can’t be placed out in the open?” said one customer at the market. “I see some stalls that place the meat outside, while others put it inside the chillers. There is nothing customers like us can do anyway.”

    Health experts said raw meat should not be kept out in the open.

    Said Assistant Professor Yang Liang from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Biological Sciences: “Considering the high temperatures of Singapore, it is really essential to make sure all the meat and other food are always maintained at cold temperatures.

    “Bacteria can be found in the air, can be found from the body of the person who sells the chicken or meat. If we do not maintain the chicken at the right temperature and we do not cook it the right way, depending on the source of the micro-organisms, some of them can be very dangerous.”

    The contamination may not be deadly, but those who consume contaminated food could still suffer from diarrhoea for a couple of days. And contrary to popular belief, cooking does not always make it safe said Asst Prof Yang.

    “If we deep-fry, it can almost kill most of the bacteria, but I am not totally sure about some of the spores that the bacteria produce. Spores are a kind of fungi. Certain bacteria can produce spores, which can be extremely tolerant – even in several hundreds of degrees, they can survive.

    “Do not rely on just cooking; it is not a way to kill the bacteria,” he added.

    The stall keeper of Wee Chai Fresh and Frozen Chicken Supplier at Tekka, Mr Mohamed Rasun, said they only take their produce out of the chiller on weekends to attract customers and allow them to see the goods.

    “I know by the law it is not right. We are (going) against the law, but we have no choice,” he said.

    “So far our customers have never complained about our chicken being bad or dirty,” he said, adding that every hour, ice is put on the chickens put out of the chiller to keep them fresh.

    Some customers Channel NewsAsia spoke to had mixed opinions.

    “These are fresh chickens, so it probably won’t be a problem,” said one. “But if you keep it outside for a long period of time, then it is a problem.”

    Another disagreed. “I never buy (raw meat from) here. A lot of people touch it.”

    Stall owners said authorities have been conducting checks, and have warned errant stall holders. Some also said they have been fined in the past for similar practices.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Want To Live Longer? Sauna Baths May Just Be The Answer…

    Want To Live Longer? Sauna Baths May Just Be The Answer…

    A study of Finnish men suggests frequent sauna baths may help you live longer.

    That is welcome news if it proves to be true – not just in Finland where saunas are commonplace, but for Americans shivering in a snowy Nordic-like winter.

    Previous research has suggested that saunas might improve blood vessel function and exercise capacity, or even lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension.

    The new study links long, hot sauna baths with more benefits, including fewer deaths from heart attacks, strokes, various heart-related conditions and other causes.

    The study tracked more than 2,000 Finnish men for nearly 20 years on average. Most used saunas at least once weekly. Those who used them four to seven times weekly received the greatest survival benefits.

    The study was published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

     

    Source: www.theguardian.com

  • Health Promotion Board: Race-Based Health Programmes The Way To Go

    Health Promotion Board: Race-Based Health Programmes The Way To Go

    SEVERAL health programmes are tailored differently for the various ethnic groups to better tackle particular health concerns due to factors like lifestyle and diet, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim told the House.

    “Malays have a common way of eating the kind of dishes that they like, similarly for Chinese as well as others,” he said.

    This was why the Health Promotion Board (HPB) took a targeted approach by having calendars and workshops for different audiences, on top of its overall efforts to get people to have a balanced diet, exercise and go for health checks, he added.

    Dr Faishal was replying to Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang GRC), who asked about plans to address health issues facing the Malay community.

    Statistics put out by the national registry of diseases last month saw a disproportionate number of diabetics and patients with kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes from the Malay community in 2013, although Chinese had the highest incidence of cancer.

    Dr Faishal said research showed lifestyle, rather than genetic factors, appeared to be behind such differences.

    “In terms of genetics, we do not have significant evidence to (explain) such a phenomenon,” he added.

    He noted that HPB had worked with the Singapore Muslim Women’s Association (PPIS) and mosques to launch a 2014 calendar for Malay women that included healthy recipes, which was received warmly. The number of 2015 calendars was increased tenfold, to 30,000 households.

    A version of the calendar targetting Chinese households has also been launched, he added.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com