The Singapore government’s assault on smokers, big tobacco and pretty much anything considered socially undesirable rolls ever forward.
The Health Promotion Board (HPB), the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) are thinking of raising the minimum age of smoking from 18 to 21, among other proposed measures.
Right now, they’re really chuffed that Singapore’s smoking rate of 13.3 percent is among the lowest in the world and they want to reduce it even further to 12 percent by 2020.
As such, they’re thinking of rolling out a couple of measures that could possibly cut down the prevalence, and they’ll be holding a public consultation from Dec 29 to Mar 29 to seek your views.
Other than raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products, measures such as introducing plain packaging (no logos, trademarks or colour schemes) and making graphic health warning images bigger will also be discussed.
The course of action that could wreak havoc however would be their plan to restrict the sale of any flavoured cigarettes — meaning no menthols or any fruity flavours. “The use of flavours can mislead the user into thinking that the tobacco product is less harmful as the flavours cover up the actual harshness of tobacco,” HPB wrote in their press release.
This comes right after an onslaught of other restrictions targeted to reduce social ills in relation to tobacco and nicotine. Vaping and e-cigarettes have officially been outlawed, tobacco products in retail stores will be kept out of sight, while snuffs and chewing tobacco will be outlawed next August.
