Singapore’s Ministry of Health said in a statement on Tuesday, 11 January, that it is open to studying New Zealand’s cohort ban on smoking, and will look at how it implements the ban, its effectiveness, and how its experience could be applicable there.
Under the New Zealand government’s plans, people aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the country. It is one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry, arguing that other efforts to extinguish smoking were taking too long.
“It is an attractive proposal, in that it prevents young people from taking up smoking while not putting too many restrictions on older smokers,” said Senior Minister of State for Health Dr Koh Poh Koon.
“Then, as the years go by, more and more cohorts are smoking free.”
However, Koh noted that in Singapore, young people are generally not becoming smokers, unlike their counterparts in other countries.
In fact, smoking is not seen as glamorous, he said, and their generation is aware of the harmful effects it brings.