Singapore’s latest move to deter youths from taking their first puff is to raise the minimum legal age for smoking from 18 to 21, a measure to be phased in over a few years.
Research has suggested that governments should restrict the number of sales points for cigarettes so as to deter the youth from purchasing cigarettes.
Places like Tasmania and Bhutan have either drafted legislation or a total ban or to outlaw smoking for people that are born after the year 2000. Singapore has tried with the movement called “Tobacco Free Generation” in 2010.
Professor Chia Kee Seng, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health warned that “the younger a person is when he starts smoking, the higher the level of nicotine dependence, and the greater the intensity and persistence of his habit”.
Media Coverage:
- The Straits Times, 20 April 2017