Rilek1Corner

Tag: smokers

  • Legal Smoking Age In Singapore To Be Raised To 21

    Legal Smoking Age In Singapore To Be Raised To 21

    The minimum legal age to smoke will be raised from 18 to 21, announced Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor in Parliament on Thursday (March 9).

    Proposed changes to the law will be tabled in Parliament within a year, and the change will be phased in over a few years after the law is passed. Youths above 18 who are already smokers will not be affected by the change.

    The Government wants to cut, if not eliminate, opportunities for the young to be tempted to take up smoking before they turn 21.

    It is raising the minimum legal age to smoke, buy and possess tobacco because most smokers start before the age of 21 and a habit is established between the age of 18 and 20, said the Ministry of Health. In Singapore, 19 out of 20 smokers in the National Health Surveillance Survey 2013 had their first puff before age 21. The minimum legal age of 18 for smoking has been in force since 1993.

    The prevalence of smoking in Singapore has improved over the years — from 18.3 per cent in 1992 to 13.3 per cent in 2013, but the smoking rates among young men are still high, while the smoking rates of young women are creeping up.

    Research has also shown adolescent brains to be more vulnerable to nicotine, as they have a heightened sensitivity to the rewarding effects of nicotine. Studies also show the younger that youths are when they first try smoking, the greater the levels of nicotine addiction, intensity of smoking and likelihood of continuing to smoke into adulthood, said the MOH.

    Singapore has rolled out other anti-smoking measures in recent years. The import and sale of e-cigarettes and products such as nasal snuff and oral snuff are not allowed, and Dr Khor told Parliament last week that there is no compelling reason or practical benefit in allowing heated tobacco products as it could draw a much larger group of users,  especially among youth.

    Last year, the government extended smoking prohibition to areas around reservoirs and more than 400 parks. More than 32,000 premises are now smoke-free in Singapore and Dr Khor said on Wednesday it will look into progressively extending the smoking prohibition to other areas.

    Singapore is also taking steps to standardise tobacco packaging, as Australia, France and the United Kingdom have done, said Dr Khor on Thursday.

    “We have closely studied the experience of these countries, and see significant value in moving in this direction, so as to reduce the appeal of tobacco products, particularly to youths, and raise the visibility and effectiveness of health warnings,” she said.

    “We will conduct a further public consultation on standardised packaging this year to seek additional and more detailed views on possible standardised packaging measures. We will carefully review relevant considerations including public health, intellectual property and international law perspectives and ensure that any measures taken are consistent with our domestic law and international obligations.”

    The authorities will continue to monitor international best practices in tobacco control and will adopt appropriate measures to control tobacco use, she said.

     

    Source: TodayOnline

  • 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

  • Schools Turn To “Smokerlysers” To Combat Worsening Underage Smoker Problem

    Schools Turn To “Smokerlysers” To Combat Worsening Underage Smoker Problem

    The problem of underage smoking looks to have worsened, as some schools turn to detection devices to help them smoke out offenders.

    Last year, more than 6,200 smokers below the legal age of 18, including some in primary school, were caught. This was about 17 per cent more than the 5,311 in 2013, according to data from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

    Most underage smokers caught were 15 to 17 years old and the rise in numbers could be because of greater enforcement, said an HSA spokesman.

    But a 36-year-old teacher who spoke to The Straits Times on condition of anonymity said she has noticed a growing number of student smokers in her neighbourhood secondary school, where she has taught for 14 years.

    There are those who pick up the habit in primary school, smoking as many as 10 sticks a day by the time they enter secondary school. Some light up in school, with habitual offenders using hidden corners or toilets to take a puff, she said.

    Several schools, such as Greenridge and Chestnut Drive secondary schools, have used “smokerlysers” – portable devices that measure carbon monoxide, a by-product of cigarette smoke – to monitor if students smoke.

    Newer versions of these devices can detect cigarette use from as far as two days back. A Health Promotion Board (HPB) spokesman said these carbon monoxide meters are used in its smoking cessation programme in schools.

    Over in Choa Chu Kang, Regent Secondary School plans to install cigarette smoke detectors in the common areas of five of its male toilets. It wants detectors that can log the exact location and time when someone smokes, and send an alert to the school’s general office and a message to a staff member’s mobile phone.

    “The initiative is one of the school’s efforts to promote deterrence,” said Regent’s vice-principal Sheree Chong, adding that it also holds anti-smoking talks.

    Mr T.C. Lim, 48, whose company distributes cigarette smoke detectors, said such products have been in Singapore for more than a decade, but demand from schools has been low as most found the device too costly. He began getting enquiries from schools last year. A toilet with four cubicles should ideally have two detectors, he added, each of which can cost $500 to $700.

    The effectiveness of such efforts remains to be seen, as “it would take more influence than detection to curb the problem of underage smoking”, said Ms Gracia Goh, deputy director of the Singapore Children’s Society. Its Youth Centre runs anti-smoking campaigns and has encountered smokers as young as eight.

    “Influence by family, friends and community has a much stronger impact for them,” she said, referring to young smokers.

    Take Varun, a 17-year-old student, who took his first puff two years ago “because all my friends were smoking”. Now the Institute of Technical Education student, who declined to give his full name, is a habitual smoker but his family does not know.

    Persons below 18 caught using, buying or possessing tobacco products can be fined up to $300. First-time offenders can have the fines waived if they finish an online smoking cessation module.

    The HPB said it works closely with the Ministry of Education to discourage youth from experimenting with tobacco products.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com