Cyclists Show Support for Tobacco-free Singapore

Source from:  Channel NewsAsia (sg)  07/22/2013

A group of 50 cyclists took on a 100-kilometre ride at 4am Saturday to show their support for a tobacco-free Singapore.

The group includes healthcare leaders, doctors, teachers and medical students and members of the public.

They were led by Dr William Tan, a paralympian who has completed 60 ultramarathons.

Saturday's event is the first cycling event held by the "Towards a Tobacco-Free Singapore" movement.

The idea is to deny children born in the year 2000 and beyond the right to buy tobacco in the future.

The ultimate aim is to eventually phase out tobacco.

It was mooted by an oncologist and mathematics professor a few years ago, and they hope this will eventually phase out tobacco in Singapore.

At the last five kilometres, the cyclists were joined by children born after the year 2000 and their parents.
Dr Janil Puthucheary, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, said: "Tobacco kills a lot of people every single day.

"Half of the people who take up smoking will die because of smoking. So, anything that we can do to improve that is a plus.

"But it's not going to be one thing that's going to fix this. We need to think of many different ways to come at this, from the healthcare side, from the social side, from the economic and political side. It's got to be a multi-channel, multi-party approach to this.

"So, Towards Tobacco-Free Singapore has a very clear vision - that we'll get rid of this epidemic disease in Singapore in the future.

"I think it's going to be a hard road getting there. But today's cycling event is one of the many, many ways that we can engage and energise youths.

"We're doing this for their future, we're doing this for our children's future.

"That's why many people here brought their families along to cycle, and to just raise the awareness of how giving up smoking leads to a healthier life." Enditem