MP Louis Ng wants to ban smoking at windows but is it fair and practical?

An elderly immunocompromised couple choked by second-hand smoke drifting from their neighbour's gate despite a court-ordered distance restriction.

A family forced to seal their windows on sweltering days to escape cigaette fumes.

These are just some of the realities faced by Singaporeans grappling with second-hand smoke, as highlighted by MP Louis Ng in the Parliament sitting on Nov 12.

The New Paper had coffee with the Nee Soon GRC MP to find out more about his renewed call for a ban on smoking at windows and balconies in homes, which has reignited the debate about public health versus individual freedom.

“Still following up and still speaking up because second-hand smoke kills!” Mr Ng declared in a recent Instagram post.

Conflicting data

In a 2022 survey Mr Ng himself conducted of 2,484 HDB and condominium residents, over half of respondents reported children under 14 in their households, while one in three indicated the presence of individuals with respiratory conditions.

Alarmingly, 52.7 per cent of those surveyed experienced second-hand smoke intrusion more than three times daily.

This starkly contrasts with government data, showing that complaints related to second-hand smoke made up a mere 0.6 per cent of the total feedback the National Environment Agency received in 2023 – a figure that has been steadily declining in recent years.

“A couple of weeks ago, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment explained to Mr Ng that as a result of the measures that they have taken, the number of complaints that are related to second-hand smoke has come down,” said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong in the Nov 12 Parliament sitting.

Mr Tong went on to highlight two cases presented by Mr Ng where Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) orders were either withdrawn after a settlement or found to be unenforceable due to lack of evidence.

He argued that existing mechanisms, like mediation through the Community Disputes Management Framework (CDMF), were sufficient.

"I am not saying that the problem is not there and I appreciate what Mr Ng has said about the severity of second-hand smoke. But we also need to understand the extent of the problem and what the CDMF is scoped to deal with,” said Mr Tong.

“In this case, there are specific mechanisms that MSE has deployed with NEA to deal with second-hand smoke and, at least, from these numbers alone, they do look like there is some improvement and they will continue to work on them.”

 

"You can look at it from different perspectives," Mr Ng said to TNP, pointing to the lack of a dedicated complaint category and a cultural reluctance to confront neighbours.

"Being in Singapore, they’d rather just suffer and not complain about their neighbours."

He stressed that his proposal is not banning smoking at home.

"Please do," he reiterated. "Just don’t smoke at the window and balcony."

The proposal

Mr Ng proposes a three-tiered approach encompassing legislation, public awareness campaigns and enforcement.

For enforcement, he proposes leveraging existing technologies like cameras already deployed to address high-rise littering.

“The cameras are the last resort,” he clarified, envisioning their use primarily for gathering evidence in cases where a CDRT order is being violated, but the resident is having difficulty proving the breach.

This targeted use of surveillance, he argues, minimises privacy concerns while providing a concrete mechanism for holding repeat offenders accountable.

"If we can enforce ban on nudity that is visible to neighbours, why can't we enforce this?"

Beyond practicalities, Mr Ng underscored the health implications, quoting Ministry of Health data showing a significant number of deaths attributable to second-hand smoke.

“More people die from second-hand smoke now than Covid or accidents,” he emphasised.

What the people think

However, online discussions about Mr Ng’s proposal reflect scepticism.

Reddit user u/kcinkcinlim commented on a post discussing the proposal: "Say someone is smoking in their living room, and the smoke wafts out the window and into a neighbour's home. How to enforce? If the authorities come knocking, I can say I was in my living room, not by the window."

Other netizens shared similar concerns and experiences. Redditor u/furiostar recounted a case where a condo neighbour sued a smoker, resulting in a court order requiring the smoker to maintain a distance from his gate.

"Made little difference. The smoke just had to travel a little further to choke all of us."

Another user, u/hermansu, questioned the potential unintended consequences of such a ban.

"Actually if the rule is implemented, where does it stop then? During hot seasons where there are usually more mosquitoes, one might light coils in the balcony,” wrote the Redditor, pointing to research by the US National Institutes of Health that found that burning one mosquito coil releases the same PM2.5 as 75-137 cigarettes, and formaldehyde equivalent to 51 cigarettes.

"So next week ban mosquito coils? Then Hungry Ghost festival burning? And it goes on."

There were those, however, who supported the ban.

“As someone who used to smoke and would go downstairs to do it, let's face the truth, the whole reason of smoking at windows and balconies is to avoid making your own home smelly,” wrote Reddit user u/coalminer071.

“Second-hand hand smoke is a known and proven health hazard, personal rights should never intrude on the rights of another person and worse still subject them to potential health implications.”

Despite the challenges, Mr Ng remains undeterred. “Rest assured, at Budget 2025, I will raise it again. I haven't lost. It's just I haven't won yet."