Blue Ribbon award for smoke-free food centres

Ten food centres around the island have voluntarily removed their demarcated smoking zones as part of a Health Promotion Board (HPB) programme to encourage a smoke-free environment.

They were recognised by the HPB yesterday under a Blue Ribbon initiative for their commitment. The board aims to encourage 20 per cent of the 107 food centres islandwide to be smoke-free by next year.

The Blue Ribbon initiative is part of the larger smoke-free movement that the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region has embarked on. Singapore is the first country in the region to adopt this initiative on a nationwide scale.

"While Singapore has one of the lowest smoking prevalence in the world, recent trends suggest a rise in the prevalence, although the vast majority of Singaporeans are non-smokers," said Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State for Health.

Statistics from the HPB show that the prevalence of smoking among adults in Singapore has risen from 12.6 per cent in 2004 to 14.3 per cent in 2010.

Dr Khor added that this bottom-up approach - which engages ordinary Singaporeans to step forward and promote tobacco-free living - is one of the ways to build such smoke-free environments.

Posters will be placed around the 10 food centres to inform the public of the smoke-free policy.

"In addition to providing signages, posters and banners to distinguish them as health promoting premises for Singaporeans keen to visit smoke-free markets and food centres, HPB's health ambassadors, who are trained to help smokers quit smoking, will also be deployed at various community touchpoints island-wide," HPB chief executive officer Ang Hak Seng said.

The HPB will work with more hawker centres and coffee shops to encourage them to support the movement.

It will also train grassroots organisations and health ambassadors who will go around neighbourhoods to promote a smoke-free lifestyle and encourage voluntary no-smoking zones at void decks and common corridors.