Complaints Received Relating to Second-hand Smoke from Neighbours

9 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment in each year since 2019, how many complaints relating to secondhand smoke from neighbours has the Ministry received.

The Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): The National Environment Agency (NEA) received about 400 instances of feedback on smoking in homes in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the number increased to about 2,000 each year, as more people worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feedback on smoking in homes has since decreased to about 900 instances in 2022.

Mr Speaker: Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. Could I just ask the Senior Minister of State for the data of the 900 instances last year, how many are first-time complaints and how many are repeated complaints?

Second, while it is increased and then decreased, I think the data still shows that pre-pandemic, and now, post-pandemic the data look like it is doubled the number of complaints. So, I have asked this before, could I ask again, what is the threshold that we are looking at before we will really look into changing our policies? Is there a specific number of complaints we need to receive, like high-rise littering, before something changes?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I do not have the number of repeat complaints and first-time complaints, but of the 900 instances of feedback, 622 are actually unique feedback. So, that is the information I have. As regards to threshold, let me first again reiterate, as I have done many times, that we take a serious view about second-hand smoke and we sympathise with every case that is affected by second-hand smoke.

So, we take a multi-prong approach, both at the local level as well as at the national level. At the local level, every time there is an instance of such a case, we go down, send advisory, encourage or verbally advise the smoker, as well as look at whether enforcement can be done, if the second-hand smoke is actually emitting from the common corridor. And this is what we have done.

On the national level, we have done many things, just at this Budget, we have announced that there will be an increase in tobacco tax, and we hope that that would deter smoking and reduce the prevalence of second-hand smoke too; amongst others, legal age limit and so on.

So, it is not the threshold. We continue to look at how we can improve the situation and mitigate the cases, and every case does matter to us. I think we also need to, not to trivialise the issue because it is serious, but we need to put this in context and have a proper perspective. And that is, 900 is out of 21,300 smoking feedback for 2022.

In addition, we all know that we live in a very high-rise, highly dense, highly urbanised society. If you look at it, first, the number of residential developments, for instance, is ever increasing. So, it is not static. And we are talking about, just for HDB flats, more than a million HDB flats.

We need to take that in perspective, every case we take it seriously and we do sympathise with the resident. We will do whatever we can to address this, but we also need to put this in perspective and be pragmatic about it. It cannot be that we spent an inordinate amount of expenses and effort when enforcement may not be effective. So, we continue to look at what else we can do, including legislation for smoking at homes.

Mr Speaker: Mr Louis Ng, a very quick one. You just have about a minute plus.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Just a quick one. I mean, to put things into perspective, every other day, one person in Singapore dies that is attributed to second-hand smoke. And I think that is a perspective that we should really look into.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Indeed, as I have said to the Member, we take every case seriously. So, when we take the case seriously, it means that we are also very serious. We are also concerned about the outcome of second-hand smoke.

10.59 am

Mr Speaker: Thank you. On that serious note, order, end of question time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the Day.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]