No Smoking in closed public spaces

All the details of the new measures, as per the law approved recently by Parliament

The Parliament approved the tobacco control law in August, thus regulating the consumption, selling, and advertisement of tobacco products.

The new law imposes a complete ban of tobacco smoking in all enclosed public places such as restaurants, cafes, and public transport. By “enclosed public places”, the law means “all ceilinged areas bordered by more than two walls”. This also includes cafés within malls, as well as restaurants which have outdoor weatherproofed spaces.
The ban also applies to medical, educational, and sports institutions, with all their open and closed amenities. It also includes public areas in the work environment, such as halls, elevators, stairs, waiting rooms, kitchens, etc.
The ban is supposed to include smoking inside office rooms. However, applying such a ban is not feasible. “There are no means for ensuring that the smoking-ban is being implemented inside someone’s personal office,” said MP Assem Araji, vice-chairman of the Public Health Parliamentary Committee.

The law still allows hotels to allocate 20 percent of the rooms for smokers, providing the rooms are adjacent. However, smoking would still be banned in lobbies and other publicly-used spaces in hotels.
The law has given the owners of tourist establishments and restaurants one year to prepare and adapt to the smoking curb.

According to the law, tobacco companies are prohibited from conducting any kind of ad campaigns or sponsorship for their products, including advertisements in electronic media. The advertisement ban will be enforced six months after the law is put into effect (thus starting March 2012). The maximum nicotine rate for one cigarette is set to be 1 mg, and the maximum tar rate is 10 mg.

The law compels tobacco companies to print an anti-smoking warning covering 40 percent of cigarette packs. Tobacco packs should not bear misleading indications, such as ‘light’ or ‘mild’, giving the impression that one particular product is less harmful than other tobacco products. Araji said that tobacco importing companies would have to urge the manufacturers of tobacco products to refrain from printing such terms on the packs.

The law bans merchants, shop owners, or restaurant workers from offering free samples of tobacco products to their customers, or selling the said products to individuals under the age of 18.

All violations to this act would be heavily fined. The fines are all based on the actual minimum wage. For instance, any person spotted smoking in a closed public place, such as a restaurant, would be fined with an amount equal to 20 percent of the minimum wage (LL 100,000 or $67), while the restaurant owner will be fined from $670 to $2000. Tobacco Advertisers will be fined with at least 20 times the minimum wage ($6,700). The fine could go up to $21,000 depending on the size of the violation. In case of repeated violation, imprisonment could be sentenced.

According to Araji, the anti-smoking law should not harm businesses in the country. “Similar laws were applied In European countries and they didn’t have devastating effects on restaurants or pubs,” he said.