By IPS Correspondents
SINGAPORE, May 29 1998 (IPS)

Smoking will become even more of taboo behaviour under a campaign by Singapore’s government to use family and social pressure to get smokers to kick the habit.

The campaign, launched in April, is the latest weapon employed by the city state against the spreading smoking habit.

“Show them you care. Help them stop smoking,” is the campaign’s slogan, aimed at enlisting the help of loved ones to help smokers stop their nicotine habit.

Statistics show that seven Singaporeans die everyday from smoking-related diseases in this country of 3.5 million people.

“We want to show the non-smokers that they can take action to help the others stop smoking,” explained Alex Chan, chairman of the Committee on Smoking Control. The committee was set up in 1996 to harness community support to curb smoking.

As part of its renewed offensive against smoking, the government has been airing advertisements in electronic and print media that show parents quitting smoking so as not to worry their children.

Officials say the campaign’s premise is that there still are more non-smokers than there are smokers — and that the concern of loved ones can be a strong deterrent against smoking. These should produce more successful results than previous efforts that targeted just the smokers alone, they added.

According to a survey by the National Smoking Control Campaign in 1997, this approach succeeded in motivating 70 percent of non- smokers to help their smoking peers quit the habit.

“Smokers are a minority in the population. If we can motivate the majority of non-smokers to help, we have more hands and feet to help us in our efforts,” Chan added.

In 1997, some 560 million U.S. dollars was spent to buy 3.46 billion cigarettes in Singapore. This was about 10 percent more than that spent on cigarettes the previous year, and 21 per cent more than the 1995 total.

The rising trend of smokers in Singapore reflects the popularity of the addictive habit in Asia. The World Tobacco File says that the international cigarette market was worth some 262.3 billion U.S. dollars, and that the Asia-Pacific accounted for 51.6 percent of international cigarette sales.

The World Health Organisation, which marks World No-Tobacco Day on May 31, cites forecasts by the tobacco industry of a 33 percent growth in the Asian cigarette market from 1991-2000.

Rising incomes and aggressive advertising by tobacco firms have made Asia a major market for tobacco firms, at a time when they face lawsuits in western countries that seek to hold them liable for tobacco-related deaths and diseases.

The deregulation of Asian economies further promises market- share leaders a larger slice of the sales pie.

To fight the onslaught of tobacco giants into Asia, WHO has been urging Asia-Pacific countries to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship by tobacco firms, educate people about the dangers of tobacco and raise taxes on tobacco products.

Many of these measures have already been taken in Singapore, known for its steep fines for offenses that include lighting up in lifts, for example.

Tax hikes are one way in which the government tries to decrease tobacco consumption. Cigarette prices were last increased in February, following a rise in taxes on tobacco.

As the tax increases are passed on to consumers, consumption levels usually fall. But after the initial period of decline, consumption normally increases again as price resistance wears off.

Now some health experts are hoping that Asia’s economic crisis, the effects of which are also felt in Singapore, will help deter smokers from the habit.

A key target of the Singapore government’s campaign is the youth, which WHO says are especially vulnerable to peer pressure and promotion of smoking as “glamorous and normal”.

But some youngsters here they already find the habit unhealthy and unattractive. “You have a choice in what you do. I have little respect for people who smoke because they know what the consequences are and yet they smoke anyway,” said D.W. Anuja, a 21-year-old student here.

She agrees that using loved ones to discourage friends and relatives from smoking may work. “In this way, smokers feel as if they are letting others down,” she added.

In May 1993, a law was passed that bans the smoking, possession and purchase of tobacco by youth below 18 years of age.

Later this year, the health ministry will be regulating the retailing of tobacco products by implementing the licensing of tobacco retailers, in order to further limit the access of youths to cigarettes .

“Besides enforcement action, the ministry will continue to educate and advise under-aged youths and the public in general on the harmful effects of smoking,” added Veni Pasupathi of the health ministry.

In a statement for No-Tobacco Day, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific S T Han said: “More often than not, smokers begin when they are too young to understand the risks. By the time they are old enough to make an informed choice, their addiction undermines their freedom of choice.”

“It is therefore essential to create an environment that does not promote smoking,” he explained.

Here in Singapore, the government aims for a smoke-free country, but would be happy for now to have a less smoke-filled one.

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