SMU Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology (Practice) Paulin Straughan commented that the public pays attention to the issue of smoking in residential areas because of how closely people live together, and because of the Government’s strong anti-smoking drive. However, she said it is a complex situation, and different policies need to apply to different types of smokers. She added that there is a need to understand why a young person would pick up smoking. There is a group of smokers who are generally from a lower socio-economic class and because of circumstance and the social environment they are in, smoking becomes the norm. Prof Straughan noted that there must be effective alternatives and education in place for these people, so that they can effectively stop.