Fall in retail outlets

The number of outlets in Singapore selling cigarettes and other tobacco products has fallen to a record low, according to a story in The Straits Times.

Tobacco consumers could buy their products of choice from 4,764 retail points last year, figures provided by the Health Sciences Authority showed.

This is the lowest number since 1998, when the Ministry of Health introduced laws that required tobacco sellers to obtain a license, the authority said.

Last year’s figure is down by nearly 40 percent from the peak of 1999, when people could buy tobacco from more than 7,600 outlets island-wide.

Industry players and smokers were said to have discovered that smoking had become an increasingly inconvenient habit in Singapore owing to the tougher restrictions.

Meanwhile, a tobacco-products point-of-sale display ban, set to take effect later this year, is expected to affect sales.