Although the long-term goal is to prohibit smoking at all public places, except at Designated Smoking Areas (DSA) , we need to
recognise that smokers also need space to smoke. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has been progressively extending the Smoking Regulations to more public places where the public are more likely to be exposed everyday to second-hand tobacco smoke, in consultation with the public and relevant stakeholders.
In 2013, the NEA extended the smoking prohibition to common areas in residential buildings, sheltered walkways, linkways,
overhead bridges, outdoor compounds of hospitals and a five metre buffer zone around bus shelters.
In June 2016, the smoking ban was also extended to include more public areas such as, reservoirs and more than 400 parks. These include parks under the purview of JTC Corporation, parks in public housing estates, which are managed by the respective Town
Councils, and neighbourhood parks, under NParks, which are within private housing estates.
Since 30 June 2017, NEA also stopped accepting applications for smoking corners in all food retail establishments.
Existing smoking corners will remain until the current licence expires. Food retail establishments with smoking
corners are required to demarcate the smoking corner clearly, but setting up of physical partitions is not compulsory.
Since January 2019, public areas within the Orchard Road precinct was designated as a No Smoking Zone (NSZ). Brochures listings of the locations of DSAs are available at shopping malls and point-of-sales of tobacco products. Signage and advertisements are also found at lamp posts and bins in the erected areas, selected bus stops and on buses that ply Orchard Road.
More information can be found at the NEA’s website here.