The Big Read: It’s become increasingly difficult to smoke outdoors, but some way yet before Singapore is smoke-free

SINGAPORE — Mr Kevin Wang, 32, used to smoke a pack of cigarettes every day when he was living in Paris. But one year after moving to Singapore, in 2016, the public officer who works at a statutory board kicked the habit.
“The environment in Singapore made it hard to smoke everywhere. Not seeing smokers all the time helped me to stay focused and not relapse”.
At the time, smoking had been banned in entertainment outlets, educational institutions and public areas at residential sites. 
Ever since then, the rules have been tightened further. Today, smoking is not allowed in all parks and recreational beaches. Smoking is also banned at Orchard Road except at designated smoking areas, which are marked by yellow boxes. 
This is in stark contrast to the smoking culture Mr Wang was used to in France, where cigarettes were ubiquitous and it was common to see people smoking while walking on the streets.
The tight restrictions in Singapore made it much easier for him to avoid the temptation of lighting up.
On the flip side, the outdoor smoking ban has not stopped information technology executive Salihan from smoking as much as he always has.
He finds it inconvenient to head to the limited number of smoking points in the Central Business District where he works, but instead of smoking less as a result, he just makes sure to light up more cigarettes during each smoke break, to “compensate” for the reduced number of smoking sessions.
The stories of Mr Wang and Mr Salihan reflect the successes and limitations of Singapore’s efforts to curb smoking.
Singapore’s smoking rate has fallen steadily over the years. According to the 2023 National Population Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, 8.8 per cent of Singapore residents smoked daily, down from 13.9 per cent in 2010.
This shows the extent to which the near-total ban on outdoor smoking, alongside other measures such as gradual price hikes, has succeeded in nudging many smokers to kick their habit while dissuading younger Singaporeans from ever picking it up.
But that remaining 8.8 per cent of daily smokers is a testament to the fact that perhaps government policies can only go so far in stamping out smoking altogether: For some, the addiction to nicotine is strong enough to overcome the many barriers placed in their way.
Others have quit cigarettes only to start vaping instead, despite the fact that vapes, or electronic cigarettes, have been outright banned here since 2018.
It raises the question: If there is any progress to be made in the fight against nicotine, how can it be achieved, and is this even a realistic aim?
Singapore made early moves to curb smoking in 1992 with the passing of the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act, which consolidated existing bans on tobacco advertising and smoking on buses, the MRT and in cinemas.
Over the years, amendments have been made to the laws to ban smoking in more and more premises. In 1994, for example, smoking was outlawed in air-conditioned areas such as factories and private offices.
In 2007, the smoking ban was widened to include entertainment outlets such as pubs and nightclubs, and in 2013, people could no longer smoke in the common areas of residential buildings too. Between 2013 and 2017, the smoking rate dropped from 13.1 per cent to 11.8 per cent. 
Another big move was made in 2019, when the entire Orchard Road precinct was designated a No Smoking Zone. A year later, the smoking rate dipped to 10.1 per cent from 10.6 per cent.
And then in 2022, there was no more smoking allowed in public parks and on recreational beaches.
As the Government progressively stepped up these prohibitions, designated smoking points were set aside where smokers could light up legally while outdoors.
For example, by 2017, Nee Soon South built 50 open-air smoking points, fitted with angled benches and zinc roofs, around the neighbourhood.
Member of Parliament (MP) Carrie Tan, who oversees the ward of Nee Soon South in Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC), said these smoking points are well-utilised.
As a result, she added: “We also don’t receive many complaints from residents about secondhand smoke — just one or two every few months”.
Other town councils have also discovered the benefits of having such smoking points. In 2021, the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council set up two cooled smoking cabins in Clementi Avenue 4.
After positive feedback from volunteers and residents, the town council plans to add two more of these cabins at Clementi Avenue 6 and one at Bangkit in Bukit Panjang Town, pending approval from relevant agencies. 
“About 60 to 70 cigarette butts are collected daily from both designated smoking points, indicating a consistent level of usage,” said a spokesperson from Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, adding that the cabins are “straightforward and cost-effective” to manage.
Starting from 2019, a company called Smoking Cabin SG installed several air-conditioned smoking sheds islandwide that could convert smoke into clean air.
The developer of these cabins, Mr Stefen Choo, had said at the launch of the first of these instalments that he planned to place 60 more of the sheds all around Singapore in 2019 and a further 60 in 2020. 
These plans did not come to fruition. TODAY understands that one of the company’s cabins remains at Clementi Avenue 4 and is being maintained by Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council.
Another of Smoking Cabin SG’s installations, located outside Fusionopolis at one-north, was no longer there when TODAY visited on Wednesday (Sept 25).
Mr Choo did not respond to TODAY’s queries on the company and its cabins. 
Meanwhile, smokers themselves are not the biggest fans of these designated smoking points.
When TODAY visited an open-air smoking point next to a coffee shop in Nee Soon South on Tuesday afternoon (Sept 24), smokers could be seen going in and out, but there were also others doing the deed outside the boundaries of the smoking point.
A smoker who only wanted to be known as Madam Quek was sitting on a concrete bench behind the smoking point while lighting up.
“When there are too many people, I don’t want to go in,” said the retired 62-year-old in Mandarin. “The cigarette odour also stays on my clothes. Outdoors, there is wind that can help to dispel the odour”.
Another smoker Ah Kee, 64, also prefers to stand outside next to a green trash bin. He said that this is because the narrow bins in the smoking point often gets clogged up with cigarettes.
The air-conditioned smoking cabins are not much more popular among smokers.
When TODAY visited one such cabin at Clementi Avenue 4, Mr Jasman Mohammed, 44, had just finished using it.
“The ventilation is not good and the smell is too strong when there are multiple smokers,” he said. “I went inside only when I was alone and left once my friend went in.” 
Clementi resident Albert Chan, 45, regularly goes to the smoking booth at Block 312D. The logistics manager said that the lights turn off at around 10.30pm and the cooler inside the booth switches off at 11pm, so when he smokes past this hour, he has to endure a dark and stuffy environment. 
The ever-increasing restrictions on smoking, coupled with other moves such as hefty hikes in the tobacco tax over the years, have had mixed results.
They gave some smokers, like Mr Kevin Wang, the motivation to quit.
Others say the difficulty of finding smoking points means they smoke less when they have to leave home, and especially if they have to go to the Orchard Road area or the Central Business District.
Madam Quek said that she smokes an average of six to eight sticks daily, but when she heads out to town, that number drops to four.
But there are also smokers who simply adapted to the changes and found ways to maintain their habit.
Mr Robert Fernando, for example, said that the restrictions did not deter him from cutting down his frequency of 20 sticks per day. The 65-year old just avoids the places where he can no longer enjoy his cigarettes freely.
“I stopped going to Orchard Road unless it’s absolutely necessary because it takes my freedom away”.
Some former smokers, meanwhile, have switched to vaping, ironically because they find it more convenient in some ways — since it is illegal everywhere, they feel they can light up anywhere.
“Vaping offers the nicotine hit with better flavours, no smell, and the flexibility to vape anywhere, even indoors (which is not possible with cigarettes),” said a creative director in his 30s who wished to remain anonymous.
“You can take a hit anytime, anywhere. It is so common in Singapore that no one’s surprised when you see someone doing it. This normalisation makes it easier to vape indoors — at offices, house parties, even in public toilets”.
Vapes have become so popular that the authorities have been stepping up enforcement measures against offenders. 
Last December, HSA and Immigration Checkpoints Authority conducted an enforcement operation at Changi Airport that caught 177 people entering Singapore with e-vapourisers. Sixty-one of them were fined.  
Since Nov 2023, authorities said that students caught using or possessing e-vaporisers will be required to attend cessation programmes arranged by the Health Promotion Board and schools. Recalcitrant offenders may also be referred by the schools to the Health Sciences Authority for further action, such as composition fines or prosecution.
Mr Sean Ang, a smoking cessation specialist at Success Alliance Enrichment, a company that offers nicotine cessation therapy and training, said it is a big worry that some smokers are turning to vapes because they are so easy to acquire.
Some of his clients began vaping as a way to quit smoking, but instead of quitting cigarettes, they end up becoming addicted to both instead.
And none of these clients have managed to quit vaping, he said, adding that they find it harder than they thought it would be.
“We still have to do more to stop the influx of vapes into this country. If we are not careful, one day we might have few cigarette smokers but become a nation of vapers,” he warned.
The problem of vapes aside, there is also still room for improvement in Singapore’s cigarette smoking prevalence rate.
Globally, the accepted definition of a “smoke-free nation” is one where fewer than 5 per cent of its residents smoke daily. 
At 8.8 per cent, Singapore is near that standard but certainly can do better, health experts said.
Dr Yvette van der Eijk, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore who specialises in tobacco control and mental health research, said that if Singapore wants to be smoke-free in the next five years, it could adopt more aggressive measures, such as reducing nicotine content in cigarettes. 
The United States’ Food and Drug Administration said in 2022 it was planning to make such a move, but the plan faces fierce backlash from tobacco companies and may take years to take effect, if at all. 
New Zealand passed a law in 2022 that would have adopted this move as well, but the measure was scrapped when a new government took over last year.
If Singapore wanted to stamp out smoking over the next 10 years, it could go even further by banning added flavours such as menthol and fruits in cigarettes and implement even more aggressive taxes tied to annual inflation, Dr van der Eijk added.
To stamp out smoking fully over the next 30 to 40 years, the country could consider a generational ban, which would prohibit anyone born after a certain year from buying cigarettes, she said. 
In the shorter term, Singapore could consider banning smoking at the outdoor dining areas of bars, restaurants and coffee shops, she added.
“If all of that were just made smoke-free, that would go a long way in helping to de-normalise smoking in these kinds of settings.”
She added that social smokers tend to smoke when they are out drinking with their friends, so a ban at food and beverage establishments would disband the association between drinking and smoking.
But on top of restrictions, experts say the Government should step up support for smokers who want to give up their habit.
For example, Dr van der Eijk said smokers who want to quit should have easier access to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as patches, inhalers and gum sprays.
“These are currently not subsidised in Singapore, but one of the main challenges that smokers face when they try to quit is the cravings and withdrawal symptoms,” she noted. “And the efficacy of NRT is proven, and we know that they’re definitely safer than vaping.”
Mr Ang added that NRT should be made available more widely as well. They are currently only available through a prescription from a doctor.
“Pharmacists should be allowed to dispense this to our youth as this will give a greater accessibility to kids who want to quit smoking,” he said.
Quite understandably, the experts said, laws around smoking are designed to prioritise the needs of non-smokers. 
“There’s a saying that ‘your right to smoke ends where my nose begins’,” said Dr van der Eijk. 
“In a crowded place like Singapore where the population density is very high, anywhere someone lights up, it’s going to affect people around them.”
While smokers TODAY spoke to understand the concerns of non-smokers, they also feel maligned.
“We already follow the laws and smoke within the restricted areas. You may not like the smell, but we can’t control that. Maybe people should just avoid walking near any smoking areas,” said Ms Jane Tan, 36, who works as a barista.
Mr Fernando, too, feels aggrieved at complaints from non-smokers. He said that as smoking restrictions were stepped up over the years, non-smokers became less and less tolerant of secondhand smoke, such that now, even the “slightest irritation” will upset them.
But while everyone should respect smokers’ personal choices, there is also a need to protect and respect the people who choose not to smoke, argued Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng.
Mr Ng has gained a reputation as a fierce opponent of secondhand smoke. In Parliament, he has suggested a ban on smoking near the windows or on the balconies of apartments.
“Banning smoking at windows is a compromise in telling smokers — if you want to smoke, by all means, sit on your sofa or bed and smoke inside your house,” he said.
His fellow Nee Soon GRC MP Ms Tan noted that many people smoke as a way to deal with stress. She believes that to truly address smoking, that is the issue that needs to be fully studied and understood. 
She said that smoking is a symptom of other stresses that people are feeling, and when people adopt bad habits, it shows how they are coping with the problems in their lives. 
“I think how people are encountering challenges and what resources they have to cope with the difficulties in their lives is what we need to be focusing on.”
But Dr van der Eijk emphasised: “There’s no such thing as a right to smoke. Smoking is a privilege and a dangerous hobby that affects the people around them. So the considerations of others always need to come first.”