Increased Policies against Smoking: Does it work?
24th Jan 2013
As many of you may know, Singapore is a ‘fine’ city. The implementation of fines has been very familiar to us. With smoking, there are also many fines that are put up in an attempt to decrease the prevalence of smoking. For example, it is considered an offence for children under the age of 18 to smoke and the offenders would face a fine of up to $300. Another example would be the fine for smoking in prohibited areas. Offenders will face a fine of $200, or $1000 if convicted in court. Besides using fines, taxation is done to discourage youths to smoke by making it less affordable for them. Our current tobacco taxation is 65% of the original price of the packet of cigarette. It is the highest amongst all the ASEAN countries.
However, fines and taxes are not the only policies the government put up against smoking. Did you know, in 1971, Singapore was the first country in the world to ban cigarette advertising? The Singapore government was aware of the effects the media has on the public. Therefore, anti-smoking advertisements that included gruesome pictures of lungs and other organs were put up for viewing. In 2004, gory pictures of lungs, miscarriage babies, mouths with huge sores, and many more were required to occupy 50% of the cigarette packaging and recently, in late 2012, they came up with 6 more gory images. One of the 6 images was depicting the extraction of an eyeball with a warning note, “Warning: Smoking causes blindness.” All these gory images and advertisements are made to warn the public about the long term health risks of smoking.
There is no doubt that a lot of thought is put into creating policies against smoking in Singapore. However, the most important question still lies in the effectiveness of these policies and it is sad to say that, despite the policies, the prevalence in youth smoking is not decreasing. The National Health Survey reported a 33% increase in the youth prevalence of smoking from 2004 – 2010. This also happened to be the period whereby more anti-smoking policies are enforced. In a poll conducted by a local newspaper, smokers said they were unlikely to quit just because of the gory pictures, although most agreed they would be more mindful of the health risks from seeing the pictures. Young smokers, especially women, have resorted to stashing their cigarettes into cigarette cases and dumping the packs just to avoid seeing the gory pictures.
Although the policies are not effective as they should be, policies against smoking are like hurdles that discourage smokers from smoking. It is not unusual for someone to quit smoking due to the inconvenience and the strain in finance, however, quitting is often difficult and the right kind of social support is hard to find. Applied drama aims to provide social support for smokers who are intending to quit through the sharing of stories in playback theatre. (Click here to find out how!).
