Smoking ban goes smoothly in first week
By Alfred Siew & Jermyn Chow
ISOLATION ROOM: The party goes on in the main halls of nightspot Ministry of Sound, while smokers who want to light up step away from the music into a separate room. Weekend figures are not available, but no summons were issued to rule-breakers last week. — ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
A WEEK after the smoking ban kicked in at nightspots, revellers have continued to turn up to party, while the smokers among them have avoided the temptation to light up.
While weekend figures were not yet available, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Friday it has yet to issue a summons to any nightspot or smoker, though it has conducted nightly checks at entertainment outlets.
By last Thursday, it had inspected 536 outlets, more than half the nearly 900 here.
Said NEA spokesman Meng Yew Choong: ‘In general, the feeling we get is that there is a high level of compliance on the ground.’
On July 1, nightspots joined hawker centres, restaurants and community clubs on a list of places where smoking is not allowed.
When the ban kicked in, only 118 nightspots had applied for permission to build indoor smoking rooms or have designated outdoor smoking areas.
Despite this, party-goers still turned up in droves - without a cigarette in hand.
A check by The Straits Times on Friday and Saturday found it was business as usual for many outlets.
Nightspots such as Zouk and Ministry of Sound (MOS) reported brisk sales for the week since the July 1 stub-out.
More than 10,000 revellers partied at Zouk over the past week, about the same number as the week before.
MOS assistant vice-president of marketing, Mr Calvin Sio, said the club not only saw more people through its doors but clubbers bought more drinks, with club sales up 20 per cent from the previous week.
However, some small outlets face a tougher time. Mr Kenny Skeoch, who owns Beers, a small pub in Circular Road, said he lost half his business over the weekend because his place does not have a smoking room.
Some non-smokers gave their new smoke-free club environs the thumbs-up. Said full-time national serviceman Douglas Yew, 22: ‘I not only breathe but see better as my eyes don’t hurt.’
But while smokers generally have no objection to stubbing out indoors, some are unhappy over poorly ventilated retreats where they are allowed to light up.
Chilean student Vincenzo Dona, 18, who studied in London for two years before the smoking ban kicked in there, said: ‘Unlike the smoking rooms in London, those here are so stuffy and don’t have vents to suck out the fumes.’
To counter this, outlets such as MOS said they will install more filtration systems in the smoking rooms to keep the air fresh.
At Zouk, night operations manager Benny Heng said it will install air fresheners in its air-conditioners to keep the smell of sweaty bodies at bay.
The club is also getting its cleaners to check if clubbers are smoking inside the toilets and make them stub out.
Any smoker who infringes the ban can be fined a maximum of $1,000, jailed for up to six months or both.
Smoker Wijaya Tommy, 28, a logistics executive, supports the ban: ‘I smoke less, can spend more money on drinks and smell better.’
Source : The Straits Times, 09 July 2007
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