The National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Friday, March 15 that the authority will start to issue written advisories to those people, who are not smoking within the designated smoking areas (DSAs) in Orchard Road.
Those advisories will remind the smokers about the enforcement, which will start on April 1. The authority also stated that unlike the verbal advisory, as per the written ones, the offenders need to provide their particulars, after smoking in a designated smoking zone.
NEA added that from April, people will be arrested for smoking outside the designated areas and will be liable for a composition fine of $200 or up to the maximum court fine of $1000.
However, it should be noted that after the new policy was introduced in 2018 the number of people, who are asked not to smoke outside DSAs, which are now marked as yellow boxes outside shopping centres and hotels, has dropped by almost 67 percent.
AS per NEA's Facebook post, "Whilst the number of verbal advisories given has decreased steadily, from an average of 1,900 a day in the first week to an average of 627 a day last week, continued education and outreach are necessary to raise awareness and ensure greater compliance from smokers."
The authority is taking an advisory approach towards those found smoking outside the DSAs, after Orchard Road became no smoking zone since January 1, 2019.
"Continued education and outreach are necessary to raise awareness and ensure greater compliance from smokers," NEA added.
