About 19,000 tickets were issued in Singapore last year to people caught smoking tobacco in prohibited areas, according to a Channel NewsAsia story quoting a statement yesterday by the Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Dr. Amy Khor.
Of the total number of tickets issued, more than 2,600 were handed to people smoking in food establishments.
Replying to a parliamentary question posed by the MP Denise Phua, Khor said her ministry’s long-term goal was to prohibit smoking in all public places, except in designated areas.
“This is to protect non-smokers from the harmful health effects of second-hand tobacco smoke,” she said.
But she pointed out that because smoking was prohibited at more than 32,000 places, it was not possible for the National Environment Agency (NEA) to watch over every location, or to respond immediately to every report of smoking in prohibited places before the smokers had finished their cigarettes.
Therefore, operators and managers of smoke-free premises had a legal duty to stop patrons from smoking, or request patrons to leave if they refused to stop smoking, she said.
“In cases where they do not stop smoking or leave the premises, the operator or manager of the premises can seek assistance from NEA,” she said, before adding that the NEA had taken out 400 enforcement actions against operators and managers of premises who “had not fulfilled their duty under the law”.
She urged all smokers to be considerate when in public places by smoking only in permitted areas.