Singapore's ban on emerging tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes or vaporisers, will kick in from Dec 15. Photo: TBEC Review
Singapore Smoking e-Cigarettes Out With Impending Tobacco Ban
For electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) smokers in Singapore, the plumes of vapor clouds will soon be replaced by dark clouds ahead, as authorities on June 15 announced a ban on emerging tobacco products from December 15.
The first phase of the ban targets emerging tobacco products currently not available in Singapore. They include smokeless cigars, smokeless cigarillos or smokeless cigarettes, dissolvable tobacco or nicotine, any product containing nicotine or tobacco that may be used topically for application, by implant or injected into any parts of the body; and any solution or substance where tobacco or nicotine is a constituent, that is intended to be used with an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) or a vaporiser, commonly referred to as e-cigarettes.
From August 1 next year, the ban will be extended to emerging tobacco products existing in the local market, including nasal snuff, oral snuff, as well as gutkha, khaini and zarda, which are chewable tobacco products. “This is to allow for businesses to adjust their operating models and deplete their existing stocks of such products,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a press release.
The only emerging tobacco products left out of the blanket ban in Singapore are tobacco-containing products, tobacco derivates, or medicinal products registered under the Medicines Act.
(See also: “Confessions of a Nicotine Addict“)
War on Smoking
Singapore’s announcement of the impending ban on emerging tobacco products comes on the back of a ban on shisha smoking in Singapore in November 2014.
The government in April held a consultation session with some 20 stakeholders to discuss the future of smoking in Singapore.
Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Grace Fu, said the Government is mulling over its “next steps” even as it eventually moves toward a smoke-free Singapore.
These include the widening of a ban on smoking in public areas in Singapore. The smoking ban was extended just two years ago, in 2013, to include most indoor public areas, as well as void decks, covered walkways, and a five-metre radius of bus stops.
Last year, Nee Soon South constituency piloted smoke-free zones, where smokers were urged to light up in six designated areas only.
Some stakeholders at the consultation session in April even proposed banning smoking for those born after year 2000.
Dr Koong Heng Nung, senior consultant surgeon at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, was quoted as saying that “smoking cessation programmes’ success rates have never been high. Even my patients diagnosed with lung cancer find it a challenge to stop smoking.”
“The idea here is to restrict the use of tobacco for a certain birth year onwards – phasing it in because we’re not restricting current smokers. It does not disenfranchise current smokers, and yet we’re setting a new social norm to a new generation of non-smokers,” Dr Koong said.
The newly-announced tobacco ban, however, does not affect smokers of conventional combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars.
Vapers, as users of e-cigarettes call themselves, are like to be the group that is hit the hardest by the ban. While no official figures are available, the number of e-cigarette users has grown, despite Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) prohibiting the import, distribution, sale or offer for sale of any article that is designed to resemble a tobacco product, including vaporisers such as e-cigarettes, e-pipes, and e-cigars.
Since 2005, the e-cigarette industry has grown from one manufacturer in China to an estimated US$3 billion global business with 466 brands, a market in which the tobacco industry is taking a greater stake.
Protection of Cigarette Trade?
Two British tobacco policy experts have suggested that Singapore’s ban on e-cigarettes and low-risk tobacco products is unscientific, unethical, and harmful to health.
Professor Gerry Stimson, of Imperial College London, and Mr Clive Bates, a longstanding tobacco control campaigner, say the ban protects the cigarette trade at the expense of the health of smokers.
The pair called on Singapore’s Minister for Health Mr Gan Kim Yong to put the bans on e-cigarettes and low-risk tobacco products on hold, and to launch a policy rethink, starting with a thorough review of the evidence.
In an open letter to the Minister, the two veterans of the European and international struggle against tobacco-related disease argue that banning low risk alternatives to smoking would be unscientific, unethical and harmful to health. Effectively, they claim, Singapore’s ban on emerging tobacco products is protects the cigarette trade at the expense of the health of smokers.
“It makes no sense to ban these very low risk alternatives to smoking while leaving cigarettes freely available on the market,” Prof Stimson argued. “It means that people who can’t or won’t quit using nicotine will carry on smoking, get sick and probably die from it.”
“People will continue to use nicotine whether we like it or not, but we can still virtually eliminate cancer respiratory and cardiovascular risk if they take in nicotine with products that do not create toxic smoke and tar… unfortunately it’s exactly these products that are being banned in Singapore,” he added.
“Singapore has always been a leader in tobacco control but we think it’s taking a wrong turn by banning these products. A far better strategy is to use carefully designed regulation to encourage them to gradually destroy the cigarette trade and save thousands of lives,” said Mr Bates.
The Singapore government in 2014 increased taxation on cigarettes and other tobacco products by 10 per cent. Announcing the hike in the 2014 Budget, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the increase is expected to result in additional revenue of about S$70 million (US$52.6 million) a year.
According to Singapore Budget 2014 data, the government expected to rake in some S$1.13 billion (US$849 million) in tobacco excise duties in FY2014.
Smoke Without Fire
You would think tobacco manufacturers of conventional combustible cigarettes would rejoice over the news of Singapore’s ban on emerging tobacco products.
Interestingly, even Philip Morris International (PMI), one of the world’s largest tobacco manufacturers, is up in arms against the move.
According to Mr Johan von Zweigbergk, vice president of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris Asia Limited, Philip Morris International (PMI) has invested US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) — a significant portion of it in Singapore — over recent years in scientific research and development of potentially reduced-risk products.
“Our goal is to provide adult smokers who do not want to quit smoking with less harmful alternatives to conventional cigarettes,” Mr von Zweigbergk wrote in a letter to the media in response to the government’s announcement of the impending ban.
“When a cigarette is lit, the burning of tobacco and other materials produces thousands of chemicals, of which more than 100 are recognised widely as being associated with the development of smoking-related diseases. PMI’s heat-not-burn tobacco products are designed to significantly reduce or eliminate the formation of these chemicals,” he added.
Novel tobacco products, such as PMI’s heat-not-burn cigarettes, will be left out in the cold under the ban due to take effect in December.
“We are working with scientists and governments around the world to scientifically confirm the harm reduction potential of our novel products. Our results to date are encouraging,” Mr von Zweigbergk told The Establishment Post.
“Singapore should continue to value science-based regulation and remain open to innovative technologies while very promising scientific evidence is developing,” he added.
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