THEY were caught for littering and fined $300 each last month. Their offence: Throwing away cigarette butts after smoking.
What's shocking is their age: They were only 12.
Underage habitual smokers Rina and Candy (not their real names) picked up the habit last year - when they were 11.
The friends started out of curiosity but soon got hooked. When they were caught, they were smoking at least a cigarette a day.
Their parents only found out when National Parks Board (NParks) rangers caught the girls three weeks ago in Ang Mo Kio.
Smoking by anyone below 18 is an offence, but NParks did not take action as underage smoking falls under the purview of the Health Sciences Authority (HSA).
Said Candy: 'I started smoking because I just wanted to try it, but then I became addicted and couldn't 'tahan' (stand it) if I didn't have a cigarette with me.
'Sometimes I do it just for fun, but it's also a form of relaxation as smoking helps me forget my problems in school and at home.'
Rina and Candy are part of a rising number of young smokers here. An average of 6,200 underage smokers were nabbed each year in the last five years.
And while the overall smoking rate in Singapore fell from 20 per cent in 1984 to 13 per cent in 2004, it has gone up again in the last three years to 14 per cent.
This has prompted the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to consider stiffer penalties and other amendments to tobacco regulations.
But Mr Gerard Ee, executive director of Beyond Social Services, said: 'Sometimes it's the way we frame these social problems - by criminalising them, for example - that creates other problems.
'If premature death, painted by the pictures on cigarette packs, does not frighten these youths, how would the threat of a fine help?'
The Students' Health Survey conducted by HPB in 2006 among 3,844 Secondary 1 to 4 students, found that children were likely to pick up smoking if their peers, parents and siblings smoke. (See table below.)
Candy's father 'smokes heavily' and her 14-year-old sister introduced her to smoking when she was 11.
She began sneaking out last year to smoke with her friends, usually outside shopping malls.
She often puffs with older students, satisfying her desire 'to be part of the gang' which comprises mostly boys.
As she's in primary school, she finds it hard to buy cigarettes, and depends on her older friends and sister for her limited supply.
Once, she was so desperate she even snitched a cigarette from her father - who lives elsewhere but visits sometimes.
Candy hid in the bathroom to smoke and flushed the evidence down the toilet.
She claimed to have stopped smoking after being fined by NParks and said she had to face the wrath of her mother - a single parent who earns $700 a month.
Like many smokers, Candy claimed: 'Though it's easy to get addicted, I know I can stop smoking if I want. I don't think there has been significant damage to my health in just a year of smoking.'
The HPB survey showed, however, that 'youth smokers displayed several misconceptions about smoking'.
About a fifth of underage smokers felt that smoking was not harmful to their health and 71 per cent thought that they could stop smoking anytime they wanted.
