Secondhand and thirdhand cigarette smoke - part of the price to pay for using public transport

My wife and I could afford a car but we choose to take public transport to be environmentally friendly, to keep physically active and also not add to further road congestion.

Our resolve to take public transport is constantly challenged by secondhand cigarette smoke from smokers taking smoking breaks at/around bus stops, at/within the perimeter of non-smoking zones at MRT entrances and exits and along walkways accessing bus stops and MRT stations. There is no escape because these are common access points to the public transport system.

Furthermore, as much as you try to avoid them, smokers walk into you all the time.  When one eventually gets on a bus or train, one has to suffer, often enough, thirdhand smoke from the breath and garments of chain smokers.  It is also very common and distressing to be stuck in a taxi, with a driver emitting dense thirdhand smoke.  Lest you think we are fussy, you are welcome to check out the ill effects of thirdhand smoke by searching for the term on the internet or go to the HPB website.

For the vast majority of non-smokers, numbering 86% of the population, taking public transport is not a choice and they should not be penalised further by breathing in secondhand cigarette smoke which kills 600,000 people worldwide (figures from the World Health Organisation).

On behalf of all non-smoking public transport users, our plea is that tougher non-smoking laws be in place around public transport access points. The current no smoking within 5 metres of entrance/exit rule is only marginally useful as smokers gather at dustbins just outside the 5-metre zone to smoke (some dustbuns are placed within the 5-metre zone). For bus stops, the 5-metre rule does not even apply and you can find smokers smoking around the perimeter of the bus stops all the time.

Singapore public sector is known for great integrated coordination. I earnestly hope that the transport ministry could do more to protect non-smokers in the context of public transport by working with the health and environmental agencies.  The aim of encouraging more Singaporeans not to own cars and rely on public transport will be well served by reducing commuters' exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke. 

Smoke-free HDB blocks

Haze pollution is in the news again, and rightly so, due to the health hazards it poses. If we are concerned about seasonal haze pollution, all the more we need to be worrying about the highly toxic Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) which we are exposed to daily. 

According to the Health Promotion Board, ETS causes twice as many deaths as all other types of air pollution combined. Few know that cigarette smoke contains 4,000 toxic compounds which include hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Many of the compounds can cause cancer (source: The New York Times).

Last year, during the parliamentary debate on the amendment to a smoking bill, a Sembawang GRC Member of Parliament, Ms. Ellen Lee, mentioned an unfortunate case of a pregnant woman who lived next door to a family of smokers in a HDB block. The smokers smoke at the corridor because they have a child inside their flat. The trouble is that the second hand smoke assaults the pregnant woman next door. We do not know if the cigarette smoke, distress and depression caused by the inconsiderate smoking neighbours have anything to do with it, but the woman tragically had a miscarriage. The couple wrote to the MP to tell their sad story.

86% of Singaporeans do not smoke and the torment of this unfortunate woman is by no means unique in all the HDB flats when we give ears to people in the heartlands on this issue. Will the HDB consider legislating new rules such that for 86% of new flats, only non-smokers are eligible to apply? For the remaining 14%, both smokers and some brave non-smokers are welcomed to apply.

I could almost hear the litany of reasons from the authorities on why we cannot do this. The hard facts are that seven Singaporeans die prematurely from smoking-related diseases each day and that the social cost of smoking ranged from S$673 to S$839 million, based on 1997 estimates (source: Health Promotion Board).

As it is now, we have a racial quota for HDB flats. So there is already precedence on housing policy in support of social policy. Perhaps we can be innovative in welding housing policy and health policy together in this regard.