NEA extends smoking ban to affect universities, trishaws and private-hire cars

College students, Grab and Uber drivers, as well as trishaw uncles will have till this Sunday to light up their cigarettes at their venues of work and study — the National Environment Agency (NEA) has yet again expanded the smoking ban.

From Oct 1 onwards, smoking will no longer be allowed at the compounds of autonomous universities and private education institutes. The same goes for private-hire cars (but only when it’s being used to chauffeur people around), trishaws and excursion buses.

On top of that, NEA has also enacted a strict no-smoking radius of five metres from the compounds of any educational institution whatsoever, meaning folks can’t light up near kindergartens, child care centres, special education schools, madrasahs, primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges/centralised institutes, polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education campuses as well.

It’s all done to reduce the exposure of the public to second-hand smoke and (as usual) support the “national effort to promote a smoke-free lifestyle in Singapore”. Already, smoking is slowly being outlawed in major pedestrian areas such as Orchard Road, where there’ll only be five designated smoking areas in the popular shopping stretch come July 2018.

For now, however, NEA’s taking a relatively chill approach in the first three months of the new extended prohibition. Those caught smoking in the newly prohibited spots will receive verbal warnings to give the public time to adjust. But those who are repeatedly caught red-handed in spite of prior warnings will still be issued a fine.



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