Extension of Smoking Prohibition To be Launched in Singapore from July 1st.
From July 1, Singapore’s smoking ban will extend to more areas, including all public parks and gardens, 10 recreational beaches, and sites managed by national water agency PUB. Smokers will only be permitted to smoke in designated smoking areas and open public spaces, such as uncovered walkways and top decks of multi-storey carparks.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
Extension of the smoking ban In Singapore
From 1 July 2022, smoking will be prohibited at the three new types of premises listed below. In consultation with partner agencies, the National Environment Agency (NEA) is prohibiting smoking at these additional areas to further protect the public from the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke.
· All remaining public parks and gardens[1]
· Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) sites, and
· 10 recreational beaches
List new places where smoking will be prohibited from 1 July 2022 can be found here.
The Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act 1992, administered by NEA, supports the national initiative to promote a smoke-free lifestyle in Singapore and helps to lower the exposure of the public to second-hand tobacco smoke. As of today, smoking is prohibited in more than 49,000 premises, including indoor and outdoor venues, such as entertainment outlets, shopping malls, schools, bus stops, and common areas in residential buildings (e.g. void decks, corridors, covered walkways, elevator lobbies, stairwells).
The environmental impact of big tobacco is ‘devastating’
While cities across the country are taking steps to reduce pollution by banning plastic straws and bags, environmental and health organizations have been focusing on the ocean’s most significant containment: cigarette butts.
According to the NGO Ocean Conservancy, while many smokers will frequently dispose of cigarette butts directly onto the beach, filters often find their way to the ocean via storm drains, streams, and rivers far away from the shore. But once in the water, the butts will slowly dissolve and release the pollutants they absorbed from the tobacco — such as nicotine, arsenic, and lead — into the ocean. As these toxic objects float in the water, they can be eaten by sea animals that mistake them for food, and fragments of cigarette filters have been found in 70 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of sea turtles, the report stated.
According to A Greener Future, 4.5 trillion cigarette filters are littered each year, and just a single one is enough to kill fish in a stream. The toxicity levels can rise in the fish that survive, and this can affect human health if they end up on a dinner plate.
With cigarette filters affecting such a large portion of life on the planet, there has been an increasing movement to ban them altogether. These tiny little synthetic pieces are supposed to “filter out” the harmful substances from tobacco. A filter made of cellulose acetate (a non-biodegradable synthetic fiber) was added to cigarettes in the 1950s as ties to lung cancer became more apparent, but the actual health benefits of filters aren’t exactly clear.
According to A Greener Future, 4.5 trillion cigarette filters are littered each year, and just a single one is enough to kill fish in a stream. The toxicity levels can rise in the fish that survive, and this can affect human health if they end up on a dinner plate.
Cigarette and e-cigarette waste can pollute soil, beaches and waterways. Studies have also shown that cigarette and e-cigarette waste is harmful to wildlife. Cigarette butts cause pollution by being carried, as runoff, to drains and from there to rivers, beaches and oceans. By banning smoking, it will encourage smokers and vapers to kick the habit altogether, which is the best way to save the environment from tobacco waste.
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