TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — University students and youth groups are urging the government to reconsider its policy of banning designated smoking areas on college campuses.
Student-led studies suggest that eliminating smoking zones pushes smokers to nearby streets or more concealed areas on campus, per PNN. National Chung Cheng University student Tsai Ching-hung (蔡璟鴻) confirmed this by saying that smokers have dispersed into less regulated and harder-to-monitor areas.
National Taiwan University student Cheng You-fang (鄭羽芳) added that while the education ministry continues to promote smoke-free campuses, the current policy has not achieved that goal. She called on both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to reexamine smoking issues on campus and consider reinstating regulated smoking areas.
In response, Lo Su-ying (羅素英), head of the health ministry’s tobacco harm prevention team, explained that the removal of on-campus smoking zones followed the previous policy change that raised the legal smoking age to 20, per UDN. Lo explained that allowing smoking areas on campus would make it more difficult to enforce the age restriction.
She also noted that the education ministry has launched initiatives to reduce smoking rates among both students and faculty, and to minimize exposure to secondhand smoke.
Before the implementation of the smoking area ban, the National Students’ Union of Taiwan warned in 2023 that the policy could drive smokers underground, making enforcement even more difficult, per UDN. The union argued that reasonable regulation is more effective than outright prohibition.
