Senseless Singapore
Claims are being made that vaping is “getting out of hand” in Singapore and “experts” are coming up with some outlandish methods to reduce it
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by Dave Cross
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Claims are being made that vaping is “getting out of hand” in Singapore. Self-proclaimed experts are inventing their own facts about ecigs and suggesting some wild methods to curb vaping – including the regular testing of teens. The fact that the conversation is being had is evidence that the complete ban on vaping is an unmitigated failure.
Like almost everything pleasurable in life, vaping is banned in Singapore. Unfortunately for the government officials and public health experts who introduced the ban, Singaporeans are still managing to access reduced harm nicotine devices. Sadly, as the ban has created a thriving black market, officials are powerless to prevent teens from also accessing vapes.
It is reported that in 2023, a neighbourhood campaign offered a vape amnesty and exchanged ecigs for shopping vouchers. Organisers state the youngest to apply was 12 years old.
Public health officials claim that April and June this year, 690 students were among the 2,530 people caught vaping or in possession of a vape. All of them, even the teenagers, were issued with a fine of approximately £1,140.
A national ban and huge fines – and yet Singapore still can’t stamp out vaping. Year on year data shows that vaping-related fines increased by 60% from 2022 to 2023, and a 30% increase from the first to the second quarter of 2024. Plus, despite receiving these ridiculous fines, 25% of teens caught go on to reoffend and get caught again.
Professor Teo Yik-Ying calls the situation “very worrying” and laughably claims vapes are a bigger problem than smoking ever used to be.
He said: “The World Health Organization had to launch a global call to action last December to clamp down on youth and adolescents vaping precisely because this is a problem that is getting out of hand.”
But then we know how anti-tobacco harm reduction The World Health Organization is.
Assistant Professor Yvette van der Eijk blames local neighbours for causing their problem, pointing her finger at Malaysia and Indonesia.
Misinforming the nation, Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Dr Puah Ser Hon says that vapes:
- Contain carbonyls, formaldehyde, benzene, tin, lead and nickel
- Damage the lungs, heart and immune system – and maybe cause cancer
Dr Puah Ser Hon even claims to have witnessed lung scarring and inflammation in patients (truly a world first).
Yvette van der Eijk joined in, saying that, “the vaping industry has been funding a lot of scientific research, which is honestly junk.”
Due to the constant nonsense being bandied about, officials have pledged to step up enforcement activities at Changi Airport and somehow the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam is going to make the ban on vapes even more of a ban – but quite how you do that defies logic. In many ways it mirrors Australia’s acts of desperation as its complete ban on disposables is abjectly failing too.
Meanwhile, cigarettes remain legal and causes the deaths of 2,500 smokers and 250 nonsmokers each year. Go figure.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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