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Forum: Time for Singapore to join Tobacco Free Generation initiative

The United Kingdom recently proposed legislation to ban those born in or after 2009 from ever buying cigarettes. If the bid succeeds, the UK will be the second country after New Zealand to implement a Tobacco Free Generation (TFG) law.

The United Kingdom recently proposed legislation to ban those born in or after 2009 from ever buying cigarettes. If the bid succeeds, the UK will be the second country after New Zealand to implement a Tobacco Free Generation (TFG) law. It is timely for Singapore to join in too. The TFG is a birth year-based endgame approach to tobacco. Since 2012, TFG International (TFGi) has been advocating this approach. What many might not know is that this movement originated in Singapore, and its leaders introduced TFG to the Philippines, the United States and New Zealand.  The TFG is well known in the Philippines, even in elementary schools. When I went to the Bataan province recently as a TFG advocate, I heard hundreds of young people declaring that they were “the Millennium Generation” and that “they knew better not to start”. TFGi has been training youth advocates in Singapore for seven years, educating us about how this single paradigm overcomes the blind spots of current policies. By learning these details, we can be inspired to not start smoking, and influence our peers to do the same. It was announced in Budget 2023 that the tobacco tax would go up by 15 per cent. However, this does not address the root causes of smoking. It still sends an indirect message to young people that smoking is “discouraged” but “acceptable”. Therefore, I hope Singapore will consider implementing the TFG, positively rallying young people to secure a tobacco-free future. Pre-JC student