widening smoking ban?

the NEA or national environment agency launched an island wide consultation exercise last month to gather feedback on widening the smoking ban.

currently, smoking is banned in the majority of indoor locations in our tiny red dot nation, which includes shopping malls, cinemas, swimming pools, basement carparks, night spots, and bus stops.

the nea is considering extending non-smoking areas to include public places like common corridors, staircase landings in hdb blocks, parks and park connectors, beaches, smoking corners in entertainment outlets, hawker centres and food establishments.

although the smoking population here is in the minority, the nea has caught an increasing number of smokers breaking the law. in the first 10 months of 2011, it issued 4,462 tickets but for the whole of 2010, the number was just 4,646.

my comments:

i confess i have been a smoker myself and therefore, the habit can be highly addictive. i particapted in a public consultation exercise some years ago with the chairperson being dr lily neo held at a community centre. and one of the most radical suggestions we heard was for the government to impose a total ban on the import of cigarettes .

but when it comes to breathing in second hand smoke, we should be aware of the risks to non-smokers and the medical evidence from this 'exposure' is real. and what is worst may be taking-in smoke from an ambient environment which can be labelled as third hand smoke*.

*from wikipedia - Third-hand smoke is contamination by tobacco smoke that lingers following the extinguishing of a cigarette.

the male toilet in my office building can be loosely identified as a smoker's haven where the latter indulges in his habit but leaves the whole place lingering with third hand smoke but i have no other choice but to do what a man's gotta do here.

and there are many other places where the risk of breathing in third hand smoke can be quite overwhelming like the public lifts in hdb blocks, bus stops, outside office buidlings and shopping malls. and the list goes on and on...

therefore, the nea must not only widen the smoking ban but step up enforecement against errant smokers.

on lung cancer, here's the stats from the singapore cancer society:

Lung cancer is the second frequent cause of cancer in men and the third most common cancer in women.* One out of every five persons who died from cancer had lung cancer. An estimated 85% of lung cancer cases in males and 75% in females are caused by cigarette smoking.

because we are exposed to both second hand and third hand smoke on a daily basis, our risks from contracting lung cancer has also gone higher.

therefore, there is no escaping the fact that everyone of us are (passive) smokers, even though we are not smokers, per se.

there is perhaps nothing much we can do against being unwilling (passive) smokers ourselves but in terms of wealth protection planning, there is a wealth of solutions available.