No effective recourse from neighbours' second-hand cigarette smoke

Second-hand cigarette smoke drifting into residences is a problem that only long-term sufferers can truly understand. I wish resolving it were as easy and effective as speaking to our neighbours ("No-smoking rules have to go along with personal and communal efforts to help smokers quit"; Sept 17)

None of my neighbours and friends affected by smoke drift at home have approached their neighbours for fear of a belligerent response and souring relations.

Neither have I, who have neighbours on the same floor and upstairs whose smoke wafts into my unit multiple times a day.

In a survey conducted by pharmaceutical company Pfizer in 2011, almost all smokers polled were aware of the harmful effect of second-hand smoke to others, but about 60 per cent continued to smoke in front of their families and friends who do not smoke.

If smokers do not care about the harm they are causing to their own families and friends, will they be concerned about how their smoke affect mere neighbours?

In her recent parliamentary speech on the changes to the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act, Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor advised people who could not resolve this with their neighbours to turn to the Community Mediation Centre. However, the no-show rate there is reported in 2015 to be about 60 per cent each year, showing once again that this solution is not ideal.

Most people here live in densely populated Housing and Development Board flats or condominiums. The "aggressors" cannot tell the "victims" to "live and let live" because smokers are inflicting harm on non-smokers with their noxious, passive smoke.

Just as a wife who is bashed daily by her abusive husband needs protection from domestic violence before she succumbs to long-term physical injury, non-smokers need protection and a way out from their neighbours who smoke.