In the mid-1990s, the city of Baltimore was attacked by an epidemic of syphilis.In the space of a year, from 1995 to 1996, the number of children born with the disease increased by 500 percent. If you look at Baltimore's syphilis rates on a graph, the line runs straight for years, and then, when it hits 1995, rises almost at a right angle.

The cause of Baltimore's syphilis problem? According to the CDC, the availability of drugs. Drugs are known for causing a dramatic increase in the kind of risky sexual behaviour that leads to the spread of diseases like HIV, syphilis, among other STDs. It increases the likelihood of people going into poor areas to buy drugs, and changes the patterns of social connections between neighbourhoods.

That's what it says, according to "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference", written by Malcolm Gladwell.

The Tipping Point is defined as the moment of critical mass, the threshold, and the boiling point. It is the point when everyday things reach epidemic proportions. There are three distinct characteristics of epidemics contagiousness, the fact that little causes can have big effects, and that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment.

The Three Rules of Epidemics are:

  1. Law of the Few - Word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication. The Law of the Few describes the type of people that facilitate the spread of information.
    • Connectors - this first group has a special gift for bringing people together. They know many people.
    • Mavens - this group accumulates knowledge. To be a Maven is to be a teacher and a student.
    • Salesmen - this group has the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing.
  2. Stickiness Factor - Stickiness is critical to tipping because it determines retention and comprehension. It is what makes customers return to a website, children watch and learn from a television program, and people choose their wardrobes.
  3. Power of Context - The key to getting people to change their behavior sometimes lies with the smallest details of their immediate situation. The Power of Context says that human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they may seem.

The solution? Proper legislation controlling the distribution of drugs. The tipping point for the Baltimore epidemic is the unlegislated and unchecked availability of drugs.

The NEA and HPB are seeking members of the public to provide feedback on extending the smoking ban to more public places in Singapore at the Govt Consultation Portal from 17 Jan to 17 Feb.

Someone in the Govt must have read The Tipping Point, because they're now conducting a public consultation to extend the ban of smoking to more places, having (I believe) identified smoking, as a key risk factor, and tipping point, of cancer, heart disease and stroke, the top 3 causes of death among Singaporeans.

The questions at the Govt Consultation Portal site are meant to be asked in such a way that people providing feedback have no choice but to say yes, a theme I've discovered nearly half a year ago in British comedy, Yes, Prime Minister.

While I am not a smoker, unlike other people (eg, LittleMissDrinkalot) and all against smoking, and an equal treatment, equal opportunity person, I want to point out that smokers have their rights too. If the Govt intends to limit the places of smoking, should the Govt also make known the places that smokers can go to, for smoking, much like the yellow boxes in Army Camps? I'm not saying that there's a need to draw the yellow boxes, but questioning whether places available for smoking should be declared.

How about enforcement issues? How does declaring more places off limits to smoking stop any smoker from smoking if there's no checks put in place?

If you're a smoker, or if you're a member of the public concerned about the Govt unilaterally deciding on what you can or cannot do, I urge you to send an email to the Feedback Unit (feedback_unit@mcys.gov.sg).