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28 March 2024

Sharjah to ban cigarette sale in residential areas

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By Staff

Supermarkets and groceries in Sharjah residential areas will soon be banned from selling cigarettes.

The rule awaits approval from Sharjah Executive Council, according to a report in 'Al Khaleej'.

Sultan Abdullah Al Mualla, Director-General, Sharjah Municipality, said: "All supermarkets and grocery stores in residential areas will need to abide by the decision. Any offenders will be punished."

The rule will be strictly implemented to ensure students and teenagers stay away from smoking, he added.

Dubai will ban shisha in residential areas

People in Dubai’s residential areas will soon be able to breathe better away from the harmful smoke of shisha when authorities issue new rules forcing cafes either to stop this service or move out, press reports said on Tuesday.

The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) said it was working on such rules in collaboration with the Municipality to ensure no shisha will be served in residential areas or in places near schools and mosques.

“The new rules will be issued a month before they are enforced...we are taking these measures after we received many complaints from people in residential areas,” said Mohammed Al Saadi, Director of the trade registration section at DED.

“We have conducted a study showing the harmful effects of shisha cafes on residents…it showed there is a need to restructure licences for those cafes in residential areas and near mosques and schools…we will of course take into consideration the interests of investors and owners of those cafes but they have to abide by new rules relating to the environment and public health,” he told the Dubai-based Arabic language daily 'Emarat Al Youm'.

[Click here to read more on shisha cafes]

He said the new rules stipulate that cafes serving shisha would not be given licence or have their existing licence renewed if they are located in those places, adding all of them would be given enough time to adapt to the new situation.

“After those rules are issued, any café or restaurant seeking to serve shisha must get prior approval from DED and the Municipality…we will send letters to all those places soon asking them to adapt to the new situation.”

Kids in sheesha outlets: Who is to be blamed?

Children as young as three months old are being exposed to smoking in the UAE as “irresponsible” parents continue to take their siblings along to sheesha  bars.

According to one prominent Lebanese restaurant in Garhoud, Dubai, where sheesha  is served, one in 10 families that visit the restaurant are accompanied by children.

“We even see parents coming in with infants, some as young as three months old,” said the Pilipino waitress, at the Mazag café in Century Village.

In another Arabic café -  Al Sidra - in Satwa, the staff said it's more common during weekends. “That’s when we see many parents coming along with children.”

But both the police and the local municipalities have expressed helplessness in taking action against parents who take children to sheesha  bars.

The UAE Federal Law clearly bars anyone below 18 years from entering cafés serving sheesha  or other places that permit smoking.

“In Dubai the law is even more stringent. We have increased the age limit to 20-years. Yet we can only create awareness among parents. No action can be initiated against them,” said Salim Mesmar, Public Health Director at the Dubai Municipality.

“The rules are very clear. Yet when they are violated there is nothing much we can do in terms of action against the parents. The only means is to create further awareness among parents,” he said.

[Click here to read how kids inhale second-hand smoke in apartments]

He added that sheesha cafés that violate the guideline would be fined. “The first time we would warn them and if they ignore the warning they could be fined,” he added.

The cafés, however, said they are not the ones to tell parents not to bring their kids. “There’s nothing much we can do. We see many such families. Most of them, it appears are totally ignorant of the health hazards it can cause to the baby or the child,” said the staff at Mazag.

In some cafés, sheesha is not served outside as it could affect the pedestrians.

“That is why we allow guests to smoke inside the premises. Although it becomes a bit stuffy inside, parents continue to sit with their kids,” said the staff at Sidra.

In 2008 the Dubai Municipality banned smoking inside hotels and hotel apartments.

The previous year a similar ban was imposed on smoking inside shopping malls, restaurants, cafés and sheesha shops.