Smokers in the United Arab Emirates may be facing tough times in the near future.
The UAE's National Tobacco Control Committee has said it will push for banning smoking in all public places, including the removal of designated smoking areas in malls, restaurants, workplaces and other public areas, according to remarks made by Dr. Wedad Al Maidour, a member of the committee and the head of Tobacco Control Program at the Ministry of Health and Prevention, on Tuesday.
The committee will make a proposal to amend the Federal Tobacco Control Law and its bylaws to make the UAE's public spaces 100 percent smoke free. Maidour explained that the UAE is still considered a "red zone" by the World Health Organization in regards to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which the UAE is a member of.
"They are pushing us to change the law from having designated smoking areas to 100 percent smoke-free areas in public spaces," she said, according to Gulf News .
Although smoking is banned in many public spaces throughout the UAE, Maidour said, "We are still allowing people to smoke in designated areas and restaurants. That needs to be stopped in order for us to change our status from the red zone."
If the proposal goes through, individuals would only be able to smoke within the comfort of private buildings and their homes. Furthermore, the law would even prohibit smoking in a private vehicle while a child under the age of 12 is present.
Taxes will also need to be increased and packaging will need to be adjusted to lift the UAE out of the red zone.
Maidour admitted that such regulations will be more difficult to enforce in the northern emirates, where existing regulations are not even fully complied with.
However, she lauded Dubai on its stellar performance in implementing existing smoking policies.
"We are happy with how the Dubai Municipality is implementing the laws… We need to focus more on the northern emirates... They have different entities in charge of enforcing tobacco control regulations. We are going to meet them and form a focus group to chalk out stricter enforcement in those emirates."