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SINGAPORE – While the government is interested in mitigating the impact of secondhand smoke on public health, enforcing a proposed ban on smoking in homes would be very intrusive and would raise privacy concerns, said the Minister of State for Sustainability. and the Environment, Amy Khor, on Monday (October 5). ).
His explanation came in response to the motion of postponement by MP Louis Ng of Nee Soon GRC, during which he said that the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Sustainability and the Environment has called for a ban on smoking near windows. and balconies of HDB’s private apartments and flats.
Secondhand smoke neighbors’ problem is not the same as loud karaoke coming from next door or wet clothes dripping from upstairs, causing long-term health damage and death. said Ng, who heads the GPC. “It cannot be resolved in the same way that we resolve all these other disputes between neighbors.”
Expressing concern about how secondhand smoke “particularly affects the most vulnerable among us,” he noted that 383 people in Singapore died in 2016 from secondhand smoke.
Ng said the GPC’s proposed ban could be enforced through “existing technology,” as seen in surveillance cameras used to detect garbage in skyscrapers and thermal surveillance cameras used to capture residents of HDB smoking in prohibited areas, such as common hallways.
‘Highly intrusive’
In response to Ng, Khor said his ministry was equally concerned about secondhand smoke and is equally interested in solving the problem, but not through the means proposed by Ng.
“Unfortunately, in addition to the fact that such legislation could be very intrusive. There are significant practical challenges in application that limit effectiveness, ”Khor said.
First, it would be difficult to gather evidence of a smoking crime, as the culprit will have to be caught smoking or holding a lit cigarette for the execution to take place.
“(A) smoker can easily hide behind the pillar’s frosted glass windows or curtains to avoid being detected by the camera. In general, this can imply the deployment of important resources, without achieving effective results ”, he added.
Second, it would be difficult to find a vantage point from which to set up cameras to capture smokers in the act without being overly intrusive. Khor noted that this is different from cameras configured to catch high-rise bed bugs, as they are placed at ground level some distance from HDB blocks and only capture the facade of a building.
“Ultimately, this will exacerbate existing concerns about privacy and infringe upon the owners’ rights (of the home) to their own private space,” Khor said.
“We must work hard to address the problem of secondhand smoke in homes, but legislation against smoking on windows or balconies may not be the magic bullet,” he added.
Khor said that of the 11,400 smoking complaints received in the first four months of this year, 58 percent (6,630) were from people living in housing estates.
While there has been an increase in the number of residential complaints related to smoking due to more people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Khor said that only 320 cases involved smoking in homes.
Instead, Khor said the government will follow a three-pronged approach to tackling the problem. This would involve working to generate greater social responsibility and instilling in residents a consideration for the health and well-being of others, including their neighbors.
He said his ministry will work with other agencies, such as the Health Promotion Board and the Ministry of National Development, to explore effective ways to achieve this goal through, for example, targeted messages on key platforms, including networking channels. social.
“Second, we will examine more ways to facilitate productive conversations between neighbors to deal with difficult situations, before they escalate into intractable disputes,” Khor said.
Third, his ministry will study how such disputes over secondhand smoke can be better addressed by the inter-agency community dispute management framework, although he noted that he hoped that most cases would not end in community mediation.
“The best way to protect yourself from secondhand smoke is for family members and neighbors to help smokers cut down and quit. And if they have to smoke, not to light at home, but in non-prohibited areas, ”Khor said.
Responding to Khor’s explanation, Ng said that “the problem is that we are seeing this as a matter of dispute between neighbors.
“And I think if we see this as a public health crisis and the direction of the policy, then the outcome of the policy could be completely different,” he added.
Up to this point, Khor said current legislation banning smoking in 32,000 places was, in fact, aimed at reducing the impact of secondhand smoke and “making it very difficult for smokers to smoke.” He also reiterated that the prevalence rate of smoking as of last year had dropped to 10.6%.
“(We are) going to expand the no-smoking areas to more places. In fact, someone said, ‘You know, actually, our ban on smoking in common areas in residential developments is already right at your front door,’ “Khor said.
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