Singapore: More Smokers, But Fewer Smoking Tobacco Products

Source from:  Channel News Asia  03/19/2014

While more people are smoking in Singapore, they are smoking less tobacco products.

The National Health Survey (NHS) 2010 found that smoking prevalence has increased from 12.6 per cent in 2004 to 14.3 per cent in 2010.

The increase was especially significant for smokers aged 18 to 29 -- from 12.3 per cent in 2004 to 16.3 per cent in 2010.

While there was a rise in the smoking rate, according to market research firm Euromonitor International, there was decline in the number of people smoking tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars in 2012, compared to 2011.

The Health Promotion Board (HPB) said this trend could be due to broad efforts to encourage smokers to quit, and observers said stricter regulations could have played a part as well.

But some experts warned that tighter legislation might not necessarily deter smoking.

It has been nearly three years since Andre Frois kicked his smoking habit.

The 28-year-old wrestling enthusiast quit smoking to improve his stamina.

Other than health reasons, Frois also stopped smoking to be a positive role model for young teenage boys who come and watch him at wrestling matches.

He had his first cigarette when he was 13, and started smoking habitually when he was 18.

To quit, he told his friends to stop offering him cigarettes.

Shops in Singapore will soon be barred from displaying cigarette packs for sale as part of an amendment to the Tobacco Act, expected by the end of 2015.

But Frois is doubtful that this would have helped him quit.

"It was never the branding or visibility of cigarettes that made me want to buy them or make me not want to buy them. It was more of the "cool" factor and the nicotine rush," he said.

Research, however, has shown that the point-of-sale display of tobacco products can influence purchasing behaviour.

A local survey by the Health Promotion Board shed some insights into how both smokers and non-smokers perceived the point-of-sale displays.

About 20 per cent of non-smokers said the displays aroused their curiosity in smoking.

Nearly 44 per cent of smokers said they found them attractive, and 50 per cent of young smokers were tempted to smoke upon seeing the point-of-sale displays.

So the ban on displaying of tobacco products and raising of taxes could help to deter smokers, especially the young.

But some stakeholders feel it is also important to address the initial motivation for young people to pick up smoking.

Irja Wendy Abd Rahman, senior counsellor of Youth Infinity at The Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre, said: "When there is constant advertising, whether it is indirect or not, it has an impact... (on) teenagers or the youth.

"So they will not be as affected because their motivation or their ultimate goal is really to smoke, to get the cigarettes.

"So whatever is on the packaging or point-of-sale display that was shown may not really have an impact on them. We have to fall back on the reasons why they picked up smoking in the first place -- whether it's for psychological addiction, social or habitual."

The Health Promotion Board said tobacco control policy measures are meant to complement ongoing smoking cessation programmes.

And it believes its campaigns may have helped smokers reduce the amount of cigarettes smoked.

Vasuki Utravathy, deputy director of Substance Abuse at the Health Promotion Board, said: "People, as they go along, may be smoking, but they are smoking less.

"This could be also due to one of our efforts, where basically one of the ways to quit smoking is to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked."

Giving an update, the Health Promotion Board said more smokers are calling their QuitLine and 30 per cent of smokers successfully quit smoking within six months.

It said the number of callers to HPB's QuitLine reached the 2,000 mark between June 2011 and March 2012, a three-fold increase from the same period before the "I Quit Movement" was launched.

But youth counsellors warned that youth may be turning to alternatives such as shisha or water pipes, without realising their harmful effects. They stressed the importance of educating the youth in such areas so that they can make informed choices. Enditem