Exposure Towards Smoking

Younger Generation VS Elder Generation

Introduction

• Hypothesis statement: Younger generation have greater exposure to smoking as compared to the older generation of their.

• Area of investigations: Prevalence, smoking behavior, social environment, and cause for this increase.

Background Information

• Cigarette tax

• Review of the penalty issued to the offender for under aged smoking

• Health risks printed on the cigarette box

• Banning of smoking in public areas; bus interchange, coffee shops, pubs

Investigation Sources

• Surveys

• Newspaper articles

• Health Promotion Board

• Interview

Key Findings – Newspaper Article• Posted in The Straits Times on 15th

August 2005, “stress relief the key to quitting” by Desmond Chan

• Stated in the article, “The reason given by most smokers I spoke to was: It helps beat stress.”

• The report said “the decision is supported by some smokers themselves. They are 'sympathetic' to families who have to breathe second-hand smoke in coffee shops and hawker centres”

Key Findings – HPB Research

• conducted a school-based youth tobacco survey among 13,111 secondary one to four students

• 26% have tried or ever smoked cigarettes (including just one or two puffs); approx. 3400 students

• The main reasons given for starting to smoke were to relax or relieve stress, ‘curiosity or for fun’ and to ‘follow friends’

• The reasons for smoking did not differ between the boys and girls

Key Findings – HPB Research• 54.1% of the smokers are more likely

to come from families with at least one parent smoking compared to non-smokers (32.1%)

• 33.7% of the smokers are more likely to have an older sibling who smokes compared to non-smokers (9.5%)

• 54.9% of the smokers are more likely to have half or more than half of their close friends who smoke compared to non-smokers (4.2%)

Key Findings – HPB Research• 88.3% of smokers are exposed to other

smokers at places other than their homes in the past 7 days compared to 61.6% of non-smokers

• Half the current smokers bought their cigarettes from a shop or a store. 21.9% got their cigarettes from their friends and 11.2% asked someone else to buy cigarettes for them

Key Findings – Survey Report

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Age <35

Age >35

Age <35

Age >35

Strongly D.

Disagree

Agree

Strgonly A.

exposure towards Increase of smoking underage

smokers

Key Findings – Survey Report

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Smoking Under Aged Smoker

Yes

No

Key Findings – Survey Report

0 5 10 15

Curiosity

Peer

Affluence

Family

Laws

Fashion

Availability

Number

Reasons for the increase of this earlier exposure

Key Findings – Survey Report

0 1 2 3 4

Smokers

Non-smokers

Stranger

Friends

Retail shops

Sources of cigarettes for the under aged smokers

Conclusion

• Exposure towards smoking for youths is quite high as compared to older generation of theirs

• Shows sign of worsening; smoker population is increasing especially under aged smoker

• Increase of the affluence of Singaporean, parents using money to compensate their children for lack of love and concern towards their children due to working which is the current trend of parents in the modern world

Conclusion

• Disastrous impact to the country

• Unhealthy workforce will worsen the current problem of ageing population and small local talent pool/workforce

• Great burden to Government; Singapore lose it competitiveness

Solution

• Education – change the wrong concept of student towards smoking

• Reviews of penalties for the offender for under aged smoking

• Tighten loopholes for the sale of cigarettes; prevent retailer to sell cigarettes to under-aged

• Impose higher fines penalty and regular checks

Limitations

• Survey – small scale, brief one, may not be accurate

• HPB Research – outdated, done on part of the secondary schools population, never taken into consideration of dropouts, type of secondary students who done the survey

• There is no periodic research on this which can’t really show the trend of the situation for the past few years.