Environmental Public Health Act
(CHAPTER 95)

(Original Enactment: Act 32 of 1968)

REVISED EDITION 1985
(30th March 1987)
An Act to make more effective provision in respect of environmental public health and matters connected therewith.
[2nd January 1969: Sections 1 to 89 and 103 to 147 ;
1st September 1972: Sections 90 to 96 ]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title and commencement
1.—(1)  This Act may be cited as the Environmental Public Health Act and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.
(2)  The Minister may appoint different dates for the coming into operation of the different Parts or provisions of this Act.
Interpretation
2.  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“arcade” includes verandah;
“building” includes any house, hut, shed or roofed enclosure, whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise, and also any wall, fence, platform, staging, gate, post, pillar, paling, frame, hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge, or any structure, support or foundation connected to the foregoing;
“Building Authority” means the Deputy Director-General, Development and Building Control Division of the Public Works Department;
“Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Public Health appointed under section 3 and includes a Deputy Commissioner of Public Health and an Assistant Commissioner of Public Health appointed under that section;
“Director-General” means the Director-General of Public Works appointed under section 13 of the Local Government Integration Act [Cap. 166], and includes a Deputy Director-General of Public Works and an Assistant Director-General of Public Works appointed under that section;
“dwelling-house” includes a building or tenement wholly or principally used, constructed or adapted for use for human habitation;
“footway” includes footways and verandah-ways at the sides of streets;
“garden refuse” means the refuse from garden and agricultural operations;
“house” includes dwelling-house, warehouse, office, shop, school and any other building in which persons are employed;
“infectious disease”, except in section 99, has the same meaning as in the Infectious Diseases Act [Cap. 137] and includes any skin disease which, in the opinion of the Commissioner is, or is likely to be, contagious;
“Medical Officer of Health” means any registered medical practitioner in the service of the Government who is for the time being carrying out the duties of a health officer in any area or district in Singapore or the port limits thereof, and includes the Airport Health Officer, the Port Health Officer and any registered medical practitioner in the service of the Government who is engaged in duties arising out of or connected with this Act;
“nuisance” means any act, omission or thing occasioning or likely to occasion injury, annoyance, offence, harm, danger or damage to the sense of sight, smell or hearing, or which is or is likely to be injurious or dangerous to health or property;
“occupier” means the person in occupation of any premises or having the charge, management or control thereof either on his own account or as agent of another person, but does not include a lodger;
“owner” means the person for the time being receiving the rent of any premises, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee or as receiver, or who would receive the same if the land or house comprised in the premises were let to a tenant;
“place of public resort” means a building or a defined or enclosed place used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally as a church, chapel, mosque, temple or other place where public worship is or religious ceremonies are performed, not being merely a dwelling-house so used, or as a cinema, theatre, public hall, public concert room, public ballroom, public lecture room, or public exhibition room, or as a public place of assembly for persons admitted thereto by ticket or otherwise, or used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally for any other public purpose;
“premises”, except in section 41, means messuages, buildings, lands, easements and hereditaments of any tenure, whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not, whether public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority, and includes any place or structure, or any part thereof, used or intended to be used for human habitation or for employment or any other purpose whatsoever;
“private street” means any street not being a public street;
“public health auxiliary” means a public health inspector, an assistant public health inspector, or a public health overseer, in the service of the Government;
“Public Health Engineer” means a Public Health Engineer appointed under section 4;
“public officer” includes any officer of any statutory board or body who is authorised in writing in that behalf by the Commissioner to carry out all or any of the powers conferred on a public officer by any of the provisions of this Act;
“public street” means any street over which the public has a right of way which was usually repaired or maintained by the City Council or the Rural Board before 1st September 1963, or which has been transferred to or has become vested in the Government under the Local Government Integration Act [Cap. 166] or in any other manner;
“showboard” includes showcase and any description of container used for the display of any article or thing;
“stable refuse” means the dung or urine of horses, cattle, sheep, goats or swine, and the sweepings or refuse or drainage from any stables or cattle-sheds or places for keeping sheep, goats, swine or poultry;
“street” includes any road, fly-over, square, footway, back-lane or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public has a right of way, and also the way over any public bridge, and also includes any road, footway or passage, open court or open alley, used or intended to be used as a means of access to two or more holdings, whether the public has a right of way thereover or not; and all channels, drains, ditches and reserves at the side of any street shall be deemed to be part of the street;
“trade refuse” means the refuse of any trade, manufacture or business or of any building operations.
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