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Make Robertson Quay both a smoke-free and no-alcohol zone

The report “Zouk to remain in Jiak Kim Street till year-end” (May 16), mentioned Member of Parliament (Tanjong Pagar) Indranee Rajah’s proposal of a no-alcohol zone in Robertson Quay in response to residents’ complaints of noise, littering and vandalism.

The report “Zouk to remain in Jiak Kim Street till year-end” (May 16), mentioned Member of Parliament (Tanjong Pagar) Indranee Rajah’s proposal of a no-alcohol zone in Robertson Quay in response to residents’ complaints of noise, littering and vandalism.

Should the no-alcohol zone be seriously considered, I suggest we make it smoke-free too. There are many commercially successful examples of smoke-free retail and entertainment zones to be referenced.

Just to name two in Asia: Asiatique The Riverfront in Bangkok and the Higashiyama-Ku district in Kyoto. The smoke-free feature of these retail and leisure zones does not hurt the success of these establishments.

Such a zone would not only reduce cigarette litter, which reinforces what a non-alcohol zone aims to tackle, but would also have other benefits. These include the strong symbolic and educational messages about the national priority of healthy lifestyles and providing momentum to inch towards the national goal of reducing the smoking rate to below 10 per cent by 2020.

Last but not least, non-smokers in Singapore would be grateful for a smoke-free leisure zone they could go to and would welcome such a move.

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