Dubai to begin gradual ban on smoking in public

The first step in a plan to stub out smoking across the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub by the end of 2009.

“Tomorrow will be the launch of gradual steps to regulate smoking in public areas,” Zohoor al-Sabbagh, head of the clinic and community health section at Dubai Municipality, said.

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“We will start with government offices and educational establishments ... there will be a gradual ban on smoking in public areas,” she told Reuters.

From Sept. 15, smoking will be prohibited in the hallways, food courts, children's play areas and emergency exits of Dubai's sprawling shopping malls, Sabbagh said.

Later on, restaurants and cafes will be required to set aside a special section for smokers, comprising no more than 25 percent of their seating area.

Starting next year, the Dubai Municipality will impose fines on people caught smoking in non-smoking areas, hoping to stub out the habit in all public places by the end of 2009, she said.

The World Health Organisation called on Tuesday for a global ban on smoking at work and in enclosed public places, which the United Nations agency says is the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide.

Some 200,000 people die each year due to exposure to tobacco smoke at work, while around 700 million children, half the world's total, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, the WHO said. Hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die each year from diseases caused by second-hand tobacco smoke.

The number of smokers is rising rapidly in developing countries. In Dubai, restaurants, cafes and bars are usually packed with smokers though smoking is already banned in many office buildings.

Several EU countries, including France, Spain, Ireland and Portugal are among those to have introduced bans on smoking in public places, in addition to New Zealand, Bermuda, Uruguay, and parts of Australia, Canada and the United States.

Cutting down on smoking is one of the aims of the Dubai government's strategic plan and a local order was issued to regulate smoking in 2003, said Sabbagh, but the campaign is being launched to coincide with World No Tobacco Day.

The rules will mean only those over 20 will be allowed to smoke or enter designated smoking zones, to discourage young people from picking up the habit.

”Tomorrow will be the first step,” said Sabbagh.