MP Pushes For Smoking Ban in Windows & Balconies Due To Secondhand Smoke

No smoking before you turn 21, and after your turn 21, and no smoking along Orchard road and crowded places. Oh, and you can only smoke in boxes marked out on the ground. Also, no smoking in shopping malls, common areas and food environments.

We have many laws regulating where we can or cannot smoke.

Now, Minister of Parliament Louis Ng is pushing for a smoking ban in a certain part of our homes.

Smoking Ban In Windows And Balconies

Just yesterday, (5 October) Minister of Parliament of Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Louis Ng asked for a smoking ban.

He did not mean ban it completely, but just at windows and balconies of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and private apartment. Mr Ng’s reason was that many residents have complained about their neighbours smoking at said windows and balconies and the second-hand smoke drifting into their homes.

The ban was put forth and suggested by the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Sustainability and Environment and lead by Mr Louis Ng.

In fact, he even did a video to prove his point:

The Problem

In his speech, Mr Ng said that the National Environment Agency (NEA) has received 11,400 complaints related to smoking in the past four months. That number is a 20% increase from the same time last year. This spike was largely due to people smoking in or near their homes, he added.

Now, we wouldn’t want to be taking a deep breath of the crisp morning air and then breathing in the foul smoke, right?

Parents and family members are worried about how second-hand smoke will affect the health of their loved ones. Some residents are extremely frustrated by their neighbours who seem to smoke multiple times a day at their balconies.

Most residents are irritated by the smell and the potential harm it could bring to their bodies. Second-hand smoke is proven to be much more harmful compared to what the smoker inhales.

While we would all love that, there is a reason why this appeal will not succeed.

The Solution

The parliament did not agree on the ban as the ban will require Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) monitoring around the clock. Close monitoring as such will be intrusive to residents and their privacy.

To be fair, we do not want our actions to be monitored by the government 24/7. How will we dance and water our plants then?

Instead, the government will encourage more conversations between neighbours and hopefully, citizens will take more social responsibility and not pass their second-hand smoke to their neighbours.

The three-pronged approach will include:

• Engendering greater social responsibility
• Examining more ways to facilitate productive conversations between neighbours to deal with difficult situations
• Working with agencies to study how these disputes can be better addressed

The Argument

Mr Ng said that solution proposal is “very similar” to what NEA officers are already doing by issuing advisories to residents against smoking near windows or at the balconies to reduce the amount of cigarette smoke that enters into other residents homes.

He argued, “Why do we draw the line at nudity, pets and feeding wildlife, but not at secondhand smoke — something that kills hundreds of people in Singapore a year?”

Dr Amy Khor rebutted that the complaints were 95% related to smoking in common corridors, staircases and void decks, and not balconies and windows. The other 5% were about smoking done in homes.

She was strongly against surveillance as smokers might easily hide from cameras and if the cameras were able to capture their faces, it would have to be highly trained and angled at an angle that would invade residents privacy.

In other words, if you’ve just woken up and closed your windows because of second-hand smoke from your inconsiderate neighbour, be prepared to continue doing that every morning.

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