This plan would also benefit youth because if these people picked up smoking, they would not get addicted to it. Very few would keep on smoking into adulthood.
Studies estimate this particular policy would reduce smoking prevalence to less than 5 per cent within just a few years.
Although this is a dramatic fall, tobacco companies may try to find other ways to produce cigarettes appealing. They may add flavours like fruits and menthol, plus decorate cigarettes with colourful designs in making them more appealing in order to youth.
PLAIN CIGARETTES TO PRODUCE SMOKING AS OFF-PUTTING AS POSSIBLE
To avoid this, Singapore can go a step further with a “plain cigarettes” policy . Just as plain product packaging standardises the design associated with cigarette packs, ordinary cigarettes would standardise the design of cigarette sticks so they do not have nicotine, no additional flavours and no extravagant designs.
Banning flavours could have a dramatic impact, since over half of the particular cigarettes sold in Singapore contain added flavours. A study published within April estimated that the tobacco flavours prohibit would reduce cigarette smoking prevalence by over a third in Singaporeans ages 18 to 29. Combined with a very low nicotine plan, the decline would be even more dramatic.
In addition , cigarette sticks could be designed to appear as unpleasant as you possibly can, plastered with wellness warnings in a drab colour such as dark green or yellow. Studies so far show that these sticks are quite off-putting to youth, and may even be more effective than plain packaging because smokers are exposed to the health warning every time they get a puff.
Although no country has a plain smokes policy, Canada arrives close as it provides banned tobacco flavours and recently suggested to print wellness warnings on cigarette sticks. Tobacco flavors are also banned in the UK, European Union and several Africa countries.
Whatever approach Singapore selects to take, one thing is apparent: It’s time to get a tobacco endgame within Singapore.
Yvette van dieser Eijk is Associate Professor at the Saw Swee Hock College of Public Wellness, National University associated with Singapore.