These are Poly students on smoke break

EVERY day, more than 100 students from Republic Polytechnic (RP) blatantly flout smoking rules by lighting up at the void deck of a Woodlands block.

Students are not allowed to light up on campus and the school has also established a "no smoking" zone around its premises.

Block 806, Woodlands Street 81, a seven-minute walk from RP, lies within the smoke-free zone.

The students appear there during their lunch break, which is from 11.30am to 2pm.

After The New Paper reported last week that some Choa Chu Kang residents were unhappy that students from ITE College West caused a nuisance in their neighbourhood, we received complaints about students from RP and the Lasalle College of the Arts smoking and littering.

Housewife Jane Koh, 51, who lives in the opposite block, said that from her second-storey flat, she usually sees "40 to 50" students gathering at the void deck of Block 806 every day.

"They smoke, make noise and throw their cigarette butts all over the place," the resident of three years added.

Two other residents who have lived there for more than 20 years said the problem started in 2006 when RP moved to its permanent location in Woodlands.

Construction supervisor Simon Lim is upset that the students pollute the air in the coffee shop at the block.

The coffee shop places six or so additional tables and chairs outside.

Mr Lim, 50,and his friends have lunch there sometimes.

"We are non-smokers.When the wind blows, the smoke gets in our face," he said.

When the TNP team was at Block 806 on Tuesday, we saw about 100 students arrive around 11.30am. An hour later many of them had left, but another 150 or so students streamed in.

They spread themselves across the void deck in groups of three to four. Most stood as they puffed away, while others sat on the stone benches or on the ground.

Two students sat on chairs that belonged to the coffee shop.

When we approached a group of four students and asked why they were smoking there, a 19-year-old first-year student, who gave his name only as Rus, said: "This is the only place that is not directly opposite the school."

Some students said they choose to smoke at Block 806 as they can buy cigarettes at the minimart there and the coffee shop.

The minimart owner, Madam Jennifer Loh, who is in her 40s, said she gets brisk business from students buying drinks and cigarettes. Every day, she sells 20 to 30 packs of cigarettes to RPstudents.

She said she checks the students' identity cards to make sure that they are not underage.

It's against the law to sell tobacco products to those below 18. The New Paper understands that first-year polytechnic students are aged 17 to 20.

By 2pm, the students had dispersed and headed back to school.

But they left behind a mess - more than 200 cigarette butts and at least 10 empty drink cans and plastic cups littered the ground. The ashtray on top of the dustbin at the void deck was filled to the brim with cigarette butts.

There were two other bins outside the void deck but only a handful of students used them.

A town council cleaner, who declined to be named, said he spends about an hour every day cleaning up after the students.

An RP spokesman said the school had indicated the "no smoking" boundary on a map and e-mailed it to all its students.

According to a copy of the e-mail obtained by TNP, smoking is banned in "the polytechnic, in Admiralty Park, on all roads, sidewalks, bus stops and the overhead bridges around the polytechnic, and in the area bounded by Woodlands Avenue 2, Woodlands Avenue 9 and Woodlands Street 81".

The RPspokesman said: "Our roving discipline officers conduct spot checks from time to time."

He added that the school had written to the National Environment Agency (NEA) on several occasions last year, requesting them to send in enforcement officers.

"They have acknowledged our concerns and have worked closely with RP to conduct regular enforcement in the estate," he said.

Checks with the NEA showed that 51 tickets were issued for littering offenders at Woodlands Street 81 between January and Oct 26 this year. The latest patrol conducted at Blocks 801 to 808 was on Sept 25.

When the TNP team was at Block 806 yesterday, three male discipline officers from RP were seen approaching the students.

The students quickly walked away. After approaching four students sitting on the grass verge and speaking to them for a while, the officers left.

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wei hong

Although smoking has always been a problem to the environment, but there is nothing much we can do about it. Since government allow cigarette to be sold here, that means they are allow to do so isn't it? I personally do not mind if they smoke or not, but i wish that they will consider about the passer-by who does not smoke. For me, i do not smoke, but quite a few of my friends do smoke. And out of the few of them, some actually manage to quit smoking although they had smoke for a long time. What they say to me is that if you have the determination to do it, you can do it. There is no such thing as addicted.

The RP students have to find places to smoke because they cannot smoke in the campus. But it is untolerable for them to throw the cigarette butt everywhere. Think of it if you are the one who are going to clean up the mess after that, will you be happy about it? Definitely not!

And while smoking, they make so much noise that causes the neighbourhood to aggravate. In terms of pollution, they already make up of two, air and noise. It is no wonder RP will take disciplinary action with their students, as they have no self-control.

So to conclude, i think RP should actually set up a smoking area outside of the campus cater to those who are smoking so that they will not cause a nuisance at other place and they can monitor their students better as well.

Melissa Tang :))

After reading this article, I feel sad that more and more students nowadays start smoking at young ages. If the continue to smoke for around 10 to 20 years, their lungs would be damaged by then when they are only at their middle ages.


Furthermore, more and more youngsters have no self-discpline nowadays too. Example can be seen from this article that students not only smoke in Woodlands Street Block 806 at the void deck there, they also litter the area with plastic cans, cigarette buds, etc after they have finished smoking. I strongly feel that all the schools and polytechnics should educate their students more on negative effects of smoking and have more anti-smoking campaigns.  However, in this case, majority of the students are from Republic Polytechnic. It's good that Republic Polytechnic is finally taking disciplinary actions.


In conclusion, I feel that disciplinary actions alone is not enough. Yes, the students can smoke in the void deck but they should clean up after they leave the place and also not create so much noise that causes disturbance to the neighbours. The government should increase fines for every student found littering in public areas.

SUGANTHI

The issue really seems to be a concern among youngsters. Smoking is a harmful addiction and also a slow killer but nowadays it seems to be a cool habit for youngsters. Why do they want to ruin the themselves by picking up this harmful habit? The answers will be my friends smoke I also smoke, feeling stress at school and many more...


After reading this article, I am able to voice out the concern stated above.I myself have seen students smoking under the void decks in mid of school or after school hours, it is really saddening. This article talks about RP students found smoking at the block opposite school and also causing nuisance to residents. These students also litter the areas after smoking. I feel that students don't have the fear of being caught for disciplinary actions. These students just want a place to smoke as the school is a smoke free boundary. They never care about how their actions affect people.


Something must be done to prevent this. In conclusion I feel that the current disciplinary actions are not strict enough.RP and even other schools should review their disciplinary actions like asking the NEA officers to conduct frequent spot checks in the suspected areas or blocks, the residents should also play a part by calling up the school if they see students smoking under their block area. Also together with that the minimarts should increase the price of cigarettes for students so that they will hesitate to even buy cigarettes. Lastly, the government should increase the legal age for smoking to 21 and above. I hope these could be implemented as it will really solve the problem.

Jane Cheong

           Every day, more than 100 Republic Polytechnic students smoking in Woodland block. Every people know the harmful effects of smoking. Smoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which lead to heart attack. Smoking also causes around one in five deaths from heart disease. Besides, Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers.

            Why teenagers smoke? My secondary teacher tells me that at such a young age, teenagers don’t really think about the health risks of smoking and they certainly do not realise how addictive smoking can be. As a teenager they probably think that they can try smoking a few times and then take it or leave it. This is a very dangerous believe.

           Many children start smoking because their friends have tried it or smoke themselves. Those children may have started as they have grown up in an environment where their parents, grandparents and older siblings smoke, and so they smoke in order to look and act like them. Other children start smoking as an act of rebellion or defiance against their parents or people of authority.

            In this article, I learn that smoking is a very serious problem in the society. Of course, smoking just has harmful effect. I felt that teenagers are not supposed to smoke and must have some healthy activities such as, jogging. I hope that people that have seen this article or comment can stop smoking or be alert not to smoke. Hope everyone can have fresh air all the time.

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Without even mentioning about this article, in general, is it right for tenngaers to smoke?  The excuse of ' I am above 18 and im allowed to smoke' is an excuse for most tennagers to do so and they would think that smoking is an "in" thing and they continue without fearing for harming their own bodies.<br><br>


Teenage smoking is one problem, but causing a dispute amongst the public and littering after smoking is another story all together.  By reading the article, the cause of this started when RP moved to a new location.  Even residents who had lived there for over 20 years had only seen such a massive circumstance when RP moved to their location.<br><br>


Research has shown that the main cause of lung cancer is by smoking, specifically, by second-hand smoke.  Non-smokers who are 'forced' to breathe in the smoke because of the on-coming air/breeze find it a threat to their own bodies.<br><br>


In my opinion, the government should ban smoking in singapore as it acts only as an excuse for people to relief stress and 'be cool'.  As this is a highly contraversal topic, i would not go on further.  In a nut shell, if u want to smoke and ruin your body, go ahead, ulitimately it's your life but don't do it at the expense of others.<br><br>


Randy Orton Ang