Trinity's Tobacco Policy
Trinity is a tobacco free campus with three exceptions as per the map below.
The proposal was accepted by Board in December 2018 is available here.
Trinity's submission to Tobacco Free Ireland Review
In July 2025, Trinity made this submission to the review of Tobacco Free Ireland 2013 calling for a new version of Tobacco Free Ireland focused on:
- A national ban on disposable e-cigarettes
- E-cigarettes to be phased out of Ireland
- A social smoking strategy for "Saturday night" nicotine users
- Legislation and funding to implement tobacco and vape free third level campuses
- Healthy Planet, Healthy People upstream action to protect nature, the environment and people from novel nicotine products. This would could be informed by emerging research fields like the Commercial Determinants of Health and One Health
- The use of precautionary principle as a legal instrument to prevent the tobacco industry addicting our community to their products
Tobacco Free Trinity is Trinity's response to Tobacco Free Ireland. We're very grateful to the government for their work on Tobacco Free Ireland and look forward to working on further government strategies that free our community from tobacco and nicotine addiction.
How was the Tobacco policy developed?
From April 2013 to December 2018, an exploration of how Trinity's tobacco policy could be changed was undertaken. The process included an investigation into become a tobacco free campus, installing smoking shelters on a temporary or permanent basis and implementing tobacco free zones. An outline of the process to date is below. The process was guided by the Healthy Ireland: Tobacco Free Ireland Report and by this document from the National Center for Tobacco Policy in the US.
Tobacco Free Zones
In June 2016, Trinity installed Tobacco Free Zones in three zones of the Trinity campus. In these zones, smoking was prohibited both indoors and outdoors.
The zones were introduced after protracted negotiations with key stakeholds in Trinity. The zones chosen were in areas of College where complaints about smoking were most often made.
We respectfully asked that people refrain from smoking:
1. Out of consideration for other people who walk through, study or work in these areas
2. To encourage a cleaner campus
3. To make Trinity a healthier campus
Effect of the Zones
There was an 81% reduction in smoking in the zones. A full report is available here. In Dec 2018, the Tobacco Policy Group used the experience of implementing Tobacco Free Zones to successfully apply for a tobacco free campus.
The Tobacco Free Zones Proposal is available here.
Details of 2017/2018 campaigns to encourage compliance are available here.