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With the Ministry of Health intensifying its campaign against smoking, more people have been punished for violating the provisions of Law No 20 of 2002, which bans smoking in public places and regulates the import and sale of tobacco and its derivatives.
In January this year alone, fines amounting to QR35, 500 were imposed for various types of violations by the ministry's inspectors, many of whom have been given judicial powers. This represents a sharp increase from 2008, when fines to the tune of QR196,700 were imposed during the whole year.
Dr Ali Arab Ataullah of the anti-smoking unit at the ministry said the multi-faceted campaign against smoking had started delivering results.
The number of smokers in the country is estimated to be about 37 percent of the total population, including nationals and expatriates.
"There is an increased awareness about the hazards of smoking and there are indications the habit is declining in the country," Ataullah told
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the National Health Authority (NHA) is working on a draft containing recommendations for amending the law.
NHA is also recruiting more inspectors who will be given judicial powers to check violations of the provisions in the existing law.
The recommendations are being prepared by the Non-Communicable Diseases Section at NHA in cooperation with its legal department.
"We have been working on the draft but it is too early to talk about specific recommendations. The idea is to make the law compatible with international standards and the WHO guidelines," . . .
Currently, there are only six full-time inspectors and more than a dozen volunteers. NHA needs some 300 inspectors to cover the whole country.
As if smokers did not have it bad enough already, a group of 'enforcers' have been roaming around the Najma area of the city asking shopkeepers to stop selling cigarettes. While some shopowners have complied, others are selling cigarettes from literally under the counter.
A request for a package or a carton of cigarttes sees the counter salesman or his assistant scurrying to a back room to fetch the 'contraband'. In other cases, cigarettes have discreetly been stashed in the cash drawer while in other cases, they are kept in innocuous plastic carry bags.
A shopkeeper told The Peninsula yesterday when asked why cigarettes are no longer at hand: "One day a group of bearded men came to the shop and asked us to stop selling cigarttes. They were mutawas I think and certainly not from the municipality." . . .
Shopkeepers say the gentleman visitors were courteous and in no way threatening. A shopkeeper said: "We felt it was safest to listen to them. In any case, we are still selling cigarettes although not displaying them openly."
British American Tobacco joined forces with prominent cooperative societies to launch the Partners in Responsibility youth smoking prevention campaign in Kuwait. The campaign, which aims to raise awareness of laws that regulate underage smoking, was launched on the 4th of May 2008 in all outlets of Dasmah and Bnaid Al-Gar, Bayan, Al-Adeliyiyyah, Kaifan and Al-Rawda and Hawally cooperative societies. Bassem Bekdache, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for British American Tobacco in the GCC stated that "We hope that the Partners in Responsibility campaign will help increase awareness of the law. We take the matter of youth smoking prevention very seriously and are backing up words with actions. In addition to Kuwait, this campaign has also been rolled out in Bahrain and Qatar with more countries to follow by the end of 2008."
A survey carried out by recruitment portal GulfTalent.com reveals Middle Eastern countries are among the most smoker-friendly in the world.
DOHA * There's bad news for the votaries of 'Quit Smoking', at least in the case of professionals in the Middle East.
Qatar, which has imposed a blanket ban on smoking in government offices and public places and with many private companies following suit, still has 32 per cent of professionals who smoke in the workplace. Forty-two per cent of private offices are free of smokers, a survey carried out by recruitment portal GulfTalent.com said.
Over one-third of the adult male population smokes – and with no protection for passive smokers, Qatar is in the grip of a smoking epidemic, according to a study conducted by the 12th Gulf Forum for Tobacco Control and Prevention.
In a country where smoking typically starts at 15 years of age, and with no studies on tobacco prevalence, consumption and related disease, it is almost impossible to gauge the severity of Qatar’s situation accurately, said a press release.
Minstry of Health representatives from Qatar have just returned from attending the seminar held in Saudi Arabia.
With this in mind Dr Ahmed Abdul Kareem al-Mulla, a senior official of the National Anti-Smoking Committee, Qatar, attended the 12th Gulf Forum for Tobacco Control and Prevention.
The Gulf Forum was a milestone in the history of GCC public health and international collaboration.
Seesha smoking among women has shown an alarming increase in the country, in spite of warnings from physicians and other experts that it can be equally if not more harmful than smoking cigarettes.
An Arabic daily spoke to a group of women sitting around in a Ramadan tent dragging away on seeshas. Twenty-eight-year-old Amani, said she first took up the seesha when she went out with a group of friends and started to imitate them in order not to feel left out.
Amani said: "I then got used to it and have become a seesha smoker. Before that, I used to smoke cigarettes. I feel a woman has a right to do what she wants and I prefer smoking in front of everyone. It is better to do it in front of people rather tank keep a secret."
S A said her mother was a heavy smoker, constantly with cigarette in hand.
The Indian Anti Smoking Society(IASS) has expressed serious concerns on the spread of sheesha smoking among men and women in the country. The increasing number of sheesha cafes are pausing serious threat to the health and well-being of society and effective measures to curb this practice is need of the hour, the society officials said.
Friends sitting together, talking and taking their turns of syrupy fruit-flavoured tobacco smoke from bubbling water pipes have once again become a common scene in Qatar, which was the first Arab country to ban smoking in public places.
It is sad to see this evil habit is spreading very fast and especially the number of sheesha smokers are on rise during Ramadhan, the society officials said. Those who partake of the seesha thinking it is a safer option to cigarettes or other tobacco products are simply deluding themselves, Dr Abdul Rasheed, president of the society explained.
Across the entire Gulf, major hotels are using massive luxury tents to attract those breaking their fast at nightfall during the month of Ramadan when they can once again eat and smoke.
The Sheraton in the Qatari capital Doha has this year opted for the open air, putting up a giant Bedouin-style air-conditioned tent looking out over a lagoon.
"We named our tent 'Children of the Medina', after the masterpiece by the Egyptian writer Nagib Mahfuz", the Nobel literature laureate who died last month aged 94, the hotel's Shukri Hussein told AFP. . . .
The cheapest charge for entry to these Ramadan soirees is 75 riyals, or about 20 dollars.
During Ramadan, Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking and smoking from the rising of the sun to its setting. But when night falls they make up for it. The evening gatherings often last until "suhur", the final meal before fasting resumes at dawn.
Restaurants, hotels, cafes and especially Bedouin tents brim with those paying lip service to the temperance urged during the holy month, when long evenings are often marked by sessions with a shisha water pipe. . . .
It is the same in all the main cities of the Gulf's other monarchies. Whether it be Dubai or Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Jeddah or Riyadh in Saudi Arabia or in Kuwait, restaurant owners and hoteliers compete to outdo each other in their efforts to attract as many Ramadan patrons as possible.
Despite a standing order imposing ban on smoking in public places, the menace is going unhindered, reported Al Sharq.
Participating in a survey conducted by the daily, almost 80 per cent of the people urged the authorities to strictly implement the law and bring the law-breakers to book. A section of them suggested creating an exclusive Ã'Â'smoking zone' in offices and public places, to contain the hazard, it reports.
"Smoking in public places has become a real menace. I wonder why people are dared to continue the practice despite a standing order against it. Strict action should be initiated against the law-breakers", said Rashid El Eid.
Government offices are supposed to strictly follow the order, issued by the Preventive Health Department of National Health Authority.
The popular brand of cigarettes, Marlboro, will now cost 10 per cent- or 50 Dirhams- more per packet of 20 sticks in the retail market. The price hike, which was implemented by supermarkets yesterday, was blamed on higher costs per carton now charged by the brand's importers in Qatar.
Officials from Ali Bin Ali and Partners, importers of the Marlboro brand in Qatar, were not available yesterday evening to comment on the price rise, which has been implemented after nearly seven or eight years when prices of smokes went up in Qatar following a higher import duty imposed by the government.
WALK into some of Doha’s leading shopping malls and you’re bound to see several people puffing on their cigarettes, very casually shrugging off what is now almost a global rule that smoking in public places is a punishable offence.
It’s an offence in Qatar as well. The only difference, as compared to other developed countries, is that you won’t see very many being punished for it.
Undeniably, it’s mostly the local men . . .
“What can we do if a customer wants to smoke?” asked an official of a leading coffee shop in a mall. “It’s the authorities’ job to curb people from smoking here. If we tell them to stop, they’re going to go to another coffee house and smoke. The problem won’t be solved, and on top of that we’ll lose our business.” . . .
Dr al-Mulla, who is also director of the Hamad Medical Corporation’s Stop Smoking Clinic, said “easy and cheap availability” was the main cause of a number of people in Qatar getting attracted to the killer habit, which according to the World Health Orgaisation (WHO), on an average claims 5mn lives worldwide each year.
Al-Mulla said he was “all for increasing the prices”
In early December, two trucks arrived at MacDill Air Force Base with hundreds of thousands of premium cigars from Pacific Cigar Co., which wanted them shipped to military personnel overseas for Christmas.
U.S. Central Command was caught off guard by the gift and did not know what to do, Lt. Col. John Robinson said.
Military rules bar the command from accepting gifts, and all service branches except the Army are prohibited from distributing free tobacco products, Robinson said.
Not wanting to offend Pacific Cigar, the command stored the cigars in a base warehouse.
After much legal research, the command determined its Army representative in Qatar could be the conduit and arrange distribution with a volunteer organization.
Room for the cigars was found on military aircraft heading to the Middle East, though it's not clear whether they made the Christmas deadline.
The 56th GCC Health Ministers' Council meeting concluded at the Doha Sheraton yesterday with an appeal to the GCC governments to implement the Council's recommendation to hike the customs duties on tobacco and its derivatives to 150 per cent.
The council, at its last meeting, had taken a decision in this regard which was supported by an extraordinary meeting of the executive authorities held in Doha this week as a prelude to the 56th council meeting. . . .
The meeting urged the Arab Education Office to create awareness among the younger generation on the hazards of smoking through the school curricula. . . .
The meeting asked the GCC secretariat to speak to the ministers of sports and youth affairs of the member countries about banning tobacco products during all sports events sponsored by tobacco companies.
Qatar's Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hajar Ahmed Hajar yesterday made a stunning revelation about some mutlinational tobacco companies having succeeded in pressuring GCC governments against hiking tobacco taxes.
The Minister was speaking at the inaugural session of the 56th GCC Health Council Ministers' Meeting which began at the Doha Sheraton yesterday. . . .
Our aim to raise tobacco taxes by 150 per cent failed because of pressure and influence from tobacco companies over our ministries and government establishment in the Gulf as the tobacco companies themselves admitted in their secret document that was published recently."
He added that in one of these documents, "one of the largest American tobacco companies claimed that it succeeded in influencing government decisions". . . .
"It is not a cause of pride for us that the GCC region is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy cigarettes, while it is one of the most expensive for buying medicines. Therefore, we have to discuss in this meeting ways to convince our leaders to adopt our recommendation