PART I | 1. This Act may be cited as the Environmental Public Health Act. |
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —| “building” includes any house, hut, shed or roofed enclosure, whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise, and any structure, support or foundation connected to the foregoing; |
| “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; |
“construction site” means any premises on which works of the following description are being or are going to be carried out: | (a) | the erection, construction, alteration, repair or maintenance of buildings, structures or roads; | | (b) | the breaking up or opening of, or boring under, any road or adjacent land in connection with the construction, inspection, maintenance or removal of works; | | (c) | demolition or dredging works; or | | (d) | any other work of engineering construction; |
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“dangerous substance” means —| (a) | aquafortis, vitriol, naphtha benzine, gunpowder, lucifer matches, nitroglycerine and petroleum; | | (b) | any explosive within the meaning of the Arms and Explosives Act (Cap. 13); | | (c) | any radioactive material within the meaning of the Radiation Protection Act (Cap. 262); | | (d) | any substance which owing to its nature, composition or quantity constitutes a danger to property or human life or health; and | | (e) | such other substance which the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be dangerous substance for the purpose of this Act; |
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| “disposal facility” includes a recycling facility, a refuse disposal ground, any place used for the deposit of refuse or waste, an incinerator or any plant, machinery or apparatus used for the processing or treatment of refuse or waste; |
| “dwelling-house” includes any building or tenement or any part thereof which is used, constructed or adapted for use for human habitation; |
| “flat” means a horizontal stratum of any building or part thereof, whether such stratum is on one or more levels or is partially or wholly below the surface of the ground, which is used or intended to be used as a complete and separate unit for the purpose of habitation or business or for any other purpose, and which may be comprised in a “lot”, or in part of any “subdivided building” not shown in a registered “strata title plan” (the last 3 expressions within quotation marks having the same meaning as in the Land Titles (Strata) Act (Cap. 158)); |
“food” includes drink, chewing gum and other products of a like nature and use, and articles and substances used as ingredients in the preparation of food or drink or of such products, but does not include —| (a) | live animals or birds; | | (b) | fodder or feeding stuffs for animals, birds or fish; or | | (c) | articles or substances used only as drugs; |
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| “food establishment” means any place or any premises or part thereof used for the sale, or for the preparation or manufacture for sale, or for the storage or packing for sale, of food, whether cooked or not, intended for human consumption; |
| “footway” includes footways and verandah-ways at the sides of streets; |
| “funeral parlour” means any premises where corpses are received for the purpose of preparation for burial or cremation or for the carrying out of funeral rites or ceremonies prior to burial or cremation, and includes any premises used for such purpose by whatever name called; |
| “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; |
| “industrial waste” means any waste whether solid, liquid or gaseous produced in the course of or is the waste product of any trade, business, manufacture or building construction, and includes toxic industrial waste and any dangerous substance; |
“infectious diseases” means —| (a) | any disease set out in the First or Second Schedule to the Infectious Diseases Act (Cap. 137); and | | (b) | any skin disease which is likely to be contagious; |
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| “itinerant hawker” means any person who, with or without a vehicle, goes from place to place or from house to house carrying for sale or exposing for sale any food or goods of any kind; |
| “latrine” includes bucket latrines, bore-hole latrines, water-seal latrines and pit-latrines; |
| “market” means any place used for the sale of any meat, fish, fruit, vegetable, poultry, egg or other article of food, whether cooked or uncooked, for human consumption, and includes any premises therein used for the sale of goods or in any way used in conjunction or connection therewith or appurtenant thereto; |
| “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; and, in relation to any part of any premises, different parts of which are occupied by different persons, means the person in occupation or having the charge, management or control of that part; |
| “operator”, in relation to a public service vehicle, means the owner, ticket conductor, driver, ticket inspector or person who is in charge or in control of the public service vehicle; |
“owner”, in relation to —| (a) | any premises, means the person for the time being receiving the rent of the premises, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee or as receiver, or who would receive the rent if the premises were let to a tenant, and includes the person whose name is entered in the Valuation List authenticated under section 15 of the Property Tax Act (Cap. 254); | | (b) | any premises where building works are carried out, includes the developer; and | | (c) | the common property of any building erected on land comprised in a strata subdivision plan approved by the competent authority, includes the management corporation having control of the building, and a managing agent appointed by a management corporation or by the Commissioner of Buildings under the Land Titles (Strata) Act (Cap. 158) and a liquidator appointed pursuant to that Act for that management corporation; |
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| “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, 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, 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” 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 any other purpose whatsoever; |
| “private market” means a market other than a public market; |
| “private street” means any street not being a public street; |
| “public health officer” means any environmental health officer or vector control officer, and includes any senior public health overseer or public health overseer in the service of the Government; |
| “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 market” means a market owned, leased or maintained by the Government; |
| “public place” includes any place whether privately owned or not to which the public has access; |
| “public service vehicle” has the same meaning as in the Road Traffic Act (Cap. 276); |
| “public street” means any street over which the public has a right of way and any street vested in the Government; |
| “public waste collector licensee” means a person designated by the Commissioner under section 31(3); |
| “recycling facility” means any premises used for the sorting, segregation, processing or treatment of refuse, waste or any other material or thing for the primary purpose of recycling or reuse; |
| “sale” includes barter, exchange, import and export and also includes offering or attempting to sell, or causing or allowing to be sold, or exposing for sale, or receiving or sending or delivering for sale, or supplying any food, drink or goods where consideration is to be received by the supplier for such supply either specifically or as part of a service contracted for, or having in possession for sale or having in possession any food, drink or goods knowing that the same is likely to be sold or offered or exposed for sale and “sell” shall be construed accordingly; |
| “sanitary conveniences” includes latrines, toilets, urinals and water-closets; |
| “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 birds, poultry or animals and the sweepings or refuse or drainage from any stables or cattle-sheds or places for keeping animals, birds or poultry; |
| “stall” means any table, shed, showboard, vehicle or receptacle or any other means used or intended to be used for the purpose of selling food or goods of any kind and includes any structure affixed thereto by way of roof, support or flooring; |
| “street” includes any road, flyover, 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, car park, field, grass verge, footway or passage, open court or open alley used or intended to be used as a means of access to 2 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; |
“swimming pool” means any swimming pool —| (a) | to which the public has access, whether or not admission is gained by payment; and | | (b) | managed, operated or run by any hotel, club, association or other organisation; |
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| “toilet” means a facility for urinating and defecating which is water flushed, and which connects, directly or otherwise, with a private sewage disposal system or with the public sewage disposal system; |
| “toxic industrial waste” means any industrial waste which owing to its nature, composition or quantity constitutes a danger to human health or the environment or which contains or may produce pathogens of transmissible diseases; |
| “vehicle” means any vehicle whether mechanically propelled or otherwise and includes a barrow and a cart; |
“waste” includes —| (a) | any substance which constitutes a scrap material or an effluent or other unwanted surplus substance arising from the application of any process; and | | (b) | any substance or article which requires to be disposed of as being broken, worn out, contaminated or otherwise spoiled, |
| and anything which is discarded or otherwise dealt with as if it were waste shall be presumed to be waste unless the contrary is proved; |
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| “waste collector licensee” means any person who is licensed under section 31 to collect and remove refuse and waste; |
| “waste disposal licensee” means any person who is licensed under section 23 to construct, establish, maintain or operate any disposal facility; |
| “work place” means any premises or place used for any industrial, trade, commercial or manufacturing purposes and includes all construction sites, work sites and farms. [2/96; 22/99] |
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