Give NEA extra resources to enforce smoking ban
There has been some discontent about smoking in prohibited areas and the apparent lack of resources to curb the problem (Here are some solutions to tackle illegal smoking; July 14).
Rather than rectifying the shortage of enforcement staff, the National Environment Agency (NEA) keeps replying that it is not possible to watch over all of the prohibited premises. It has confused inadequacy with ubiquity.
This emboldens smokers to flout bans, since NEA officers are hardly around to nab them. The Government collects more than S$1 billion in tobacco tax revenue yearly and can afford to spend more in this area.
Clearly, the problem is inadequate allocation of manpower and resources for surveillance. Compare, for example, the likelihood of being booked for smoking in prohibited areas versus that for parking offences.
It is not enough to ban smoking without measuring the compliance rate, indicated by the volume of cigarette butts in no-smoking areas and the number of reports from the public on non-compliance, over time.
One suggestion is that the NEA empower uniformed personnel in, for example, the police, civil defence and military, to book offenders, just as Hong Kong has support from its police department to enforce smoking bans.
Effective measures have led Hong Kong’s smoking rate (ages 15 and above) to drop to 10.5 per cent in 2015, versus Singapore’s 13 to 14 per cent (aged 18 to 69).
According to a 2011 poll conducted by Pfizer, 97.1 per cent of smokers knew the effect of secondary smoke on others, but 58.8 per cent continued to smoke in front of their families and friends who did not smoke.
If smokers do not care about smoking in front of their loved ones, surely they would not care about its effect on strangers. Adequate, stringent enforcement is therefore the only way to protect non-smokers.
The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources should allocate more resources to the NEA next year, to enable it to do a better job of controlling smoking in prohibited areas and making Singapore a healthier, cleaner place to live.
