• 
• 

The ban was enacted in 1992 to cover the import and sale of chewing gum in Singapore. According to Wikipedia, since 2004, chewing gum of therapeutic value has been allowed into Singapore following the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

Under the old regulations, even bringing chewing gum into the city-state was technically prohibited.

I can't help thinking of this gum ban as Thailand prohibits smoking in public places and talking on mobile phones while driving.

Singapore enacted the law because of the sloppy way people disposed of gum, by sticking it under chairs and on doorways. The law deprived folks who wanted to kill boredom or sleepiness with gum-chewing, though they were not the cause of the irresponsible disposal. There are several reasons for the smoking ban. Chief on the Public Health Ministry's list is the toxic fumes that non-smokers are exposed to in public places. Personally, I thought the ban was warmly welcomed in Thailand because few smokers respected the rights of non-smokers.

Some smoked at public bus stops. In restaurants, they opted for their usual tables and lit up cigarettes, ignoring kids seated nearby. Cigarette butts were tossed anywhere on the street, which could easily lead to fires.

No wonder, regulations quickly turned smokers into second-class citizens, no matter whether they were good or bad smokers. (Yeah, in any society, there are both good and bad people.)

From this coming Thursday, car drivers will also be banned from talking on mobile phones.

Police admit that the law will make life a bit inconvenient for drivers who have been using mobile phones for years and have never once been involved in an accident.

Yet they have to admit that as the number of vehicles on the roads is rising, more and more drivers enjoy talking on mobile phones so much that they pay little attention to other cars - or even traffic lights. Some are in the fast lane, whizzing along at 70kph, while yakking away on the phone. In the slow lane, they ignore the long line of cars struck behind them.

Similar to the first two regulations, the new law was created after research conducted in other countries showed that talking on a mobile phone while at the wheel increased the chance of an accident fourfold. So now both good and bad drivers are to be subjected to the same rule.

Gum, smoking, mobile phones - am I too crazy to have linked the three?