Singapore blowing bubbles again

Singapore is set to partially lift its famous ban on chewing gum this week, but those yearning to blow bubbles or freshen their breath will have to settle for a chewy nicotine substitute.

The tightly controlled city-state is to allow the sale of Nicorette – a nicotine gum for smokers trying to quit.

The government last year agreed to relax its 12-year ban on chewing gum to allow the sale of brands that health authorities consider “therapeutic” as part of a free-trade agreement with the United States.

Squeaky-clean Singapore outlawed the import, manufacture and sale of chewing gum in 1992 because of complaints that discarded gum was fouling the city-state’s tidy pavements, buildings, buses and subway trains.