I’m a full-time homemaker staying in a five-room HDB flat with my parents and two children. We have been facing the secondhand smoke problem for about five years already.
It’s frustrating that we have to breathe in secondhand smoke from our smoking neighbours every day. None of our family members smoke as we want to stay healthy but we are forced to breathe in toxic cigarette smoke in our house. We cannot move away like in the parks or in Orchard road. Sometimes, we actually need to go out of the house to stay away from the offensive cigarette smoke even though we have the air-con on at all times at home but we still could smell the cigarette smell coming in. We also can’t close the windows most of the times as we need fresh air at home.
I’ve a pioneer generation parents and young children at home. My parents have medical conditions – weak heart, high blood pressure, and cholesterol problems but they are generally strong and alert. But ever since the smoking neighbour moved in five years ago, the constant exposure to secondhand smoke causes them to feel breathless and often experience other respiratory problems such as cough, sore throat, sneezing, and blocked noses. They never seem to recover from the respiratory sickness. Their vision becomes poorer and seems to become more forgetful easily. I’m sure it could be the side effects of secondhand smoke.
The juniors seem to be always feeling lethargic and restless and they are sneezing all the time when at home. They said their sneezing stop when they are at school. I’m equally affected as I often suffer from brain fog, migraine, and headaches, which could be due to the bad ventilation at home. Eventually, we bought three air purifiers and additional fans to place them separately in my parent’s bedroom, the children’s bedroom, and the living room. Luckily, the air improves and we can breathe more easily but still, it is not a permanent solution. Our utility and medical bills cost us quite a bomb every month.
Smokers are hard to communicate
We tried to talk to the smokers several times but they are too self-entitled, selfish, and inconsiderate. There is no way to ask them to be considerate and stop blowing their toxic secondhand smoke into our house. The police don’t want to be involved in this type of neighbour dispute and we have no one to call for help when they smoke crazily. We have also exhausted other means and were told to seek help from CDRT as a last resort but it didn’t work. The CDRT subsequently asked us to seek individual advice from a lawyer but the exorbitant price stop us from proceeding. It’s not fair for us to use up our time, money, and energy when what we want is only FRESH AIR at home! It is supposed to be our basic right.
The government has failed its job in protecting the health of the residents at home where it is supposed to be the safest place on earth.
What we want from the Government
We urge our Singapore government to ban smoking at home as 81% of the population lives in HDB. It is not right to smoke at home as one smoker can affect a few households at one time. We just hope to live in unpolluted air and a safe environment without the risks of contracting a serious illness.
Jenny Quek
Sengkang, Singapore
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