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• Campaign Aims for Tobacco-free Dubai 

The Dubai Health Authority launched an extensive anti-tobacco campaign on Sunday, targeting women and children in particular, and announced an awareness programme to be conducted in five phases till May 31 next year.

Starting this week, the campaign will also target worshippers through the Friday sermon, according to Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Kalban, the authority's Acting Director of Primary Health Care.

The awareness programme, launched to mark the World No Tobacco Day, follows recommendations by the World Health Organisation, including six policy statements against tobacco outlined in the global health body's mPower project.

Entitled Tobacco-free Dubai -- Together for a Society Free from Smoking, the campaign will begin the first phase by training physicians, raising awareness and inviting volunteers for the phases to follow.

The second phase of the campaign will start in September and will target students from G7-12 through lectures and campaigns to raise awareness.

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• Shisha smoking will be strictly regulated 

The regulations governing shisha-serving outlets will be strictly implemented in the next few months, but the municipal authorities in Dubai have not banned smoking of shisha during the holy month of Ramadan.

This was stated by Redha Hassan Salman, Director of Public Health and Safety Department in Dubai Municipality, after reports of a "ban on shisha" appeared in a section of the media.

"Shisha smoking in public places will be strictly regulated, and the cafes found not complying with the municipality rules will be soon ordered closed. The programme that we launched in November 2007 is to gradually regulate shisha smoking, and we have not initiated any ban on shisha outlets," Salman told Khaleej Times.

"We have also devised a new strategy to regulate the setting up of Ramadan tents where shisha is served. Only 4-star and 5-star restaurants will be allowed to set up tents and the activities conducted in the tent will be monitored," he pointed out. . . .

SHISHA REGULATIONS

Shisha outlets must be enclosed, and with proper ventilation system

Shisha outlets must display a cautionary notice prohibiting the entry of people below the age of 20

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• No smoking while driving 

Come 2009, Dubai would be outlawing smoking while driving. If it does, Dubai would become probably the first city in the Middle East to penalise people who smoke behind the steering wheel.

The Dubai Road Safety Strategy, being prepared by a Sweden-based consultancy company, is likely to be implemented next year.

The strategy would focus on several traffic safety issues, including smoking while driving, Hussain Mohammed Al Banna, Director of Traffic Department at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) told Khaleej Times on Tuesday.

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• DM fines 25 restaurants for violating smoking curbs 

As many as 25 restaurants in the emirate have been slapped with fines ranging between Dh5,000 and Dh10,000 for violating the smoking regulations in public places, Salem bin Mesmar, Assistant Director-General for Health, Safety and Environment Control at the Dubai Municipality, said yesterday.

Although there is a list of fines for individuals violating the regulations, none of them caught flouting the curbs has been fined so far.

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• Supermarkets to comply with U-20 tobacco ban 

While supermarket chains in the emirate yesterday said they would comply with the Dubai Municipality directive not to sell tobacco products to people below 20 years, smaller groceries expressed fears that refusal to sell cigarettes to youth could result in ugly scenes at the outlets.

Salem Mesmar, Assistant Director-General of the Health, Safety and Environmental Monitoring Section at the municipality, had told Khaleej Times earlier that the outlets found selling these products to underage people would be fined. The shops have been given the liberty to ask for an age proof from any customer whom they suspect to be underage.

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• Dubai bans sale of cigarettes to under 20s 

The Gulf emirate of Dubai on Saturday banned the sale of tobacco to anyone under the age of 20 with immediate effect and barred young people from public areas in which smoking is allowed.

The announcement was made in public advertisements in Arabic-language newspapers as part of a "Youth Without Tobacco" campaign.

A spokesman for Dubai municipality told AFP that cigarette vendors and managers of public places such as cafes and restaurants have been instructed to ask clients for proof of identity even to smoke water pipes.

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• Hotels unsure about how to ban smoking 

Although the smoking ban in hotels came into force on Tuesday, hotel managers said that they were still waiting for the final word from Dubai Municipality.

"We have so far had a draft for regulating smoking but no final word. We don't know how to implement it," said Ashwin Singh, General Manager of Dhow Palace Hotel in Bur Dubai.

However, he said that they had already imposed a smoking ban in some restaurants and the lobby.

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• Lighting up in non-smoking area could cost you Dh500 

Dubai: People lighting a cigarette in the non-smoking area will be fined Dh500 from January next year, said a senior official.

"We will start imposing fines for violating smoking ban in shopping centres, restaurants and coffee shops from January, 2008," said Engineer Abdullah Rafeeu, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Affairs at Dubai Municipality.

First-time offenders will face a Dh500 fine, which will be doubled for repeated offence. Rafeeu said shopping malls, restaurants and coffee shops would also be fined for failing to regulate smoking in their premises.

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• DM announces second phase of smoking regulation programme 

Dubai Municipality has announced the second phase of the programme to regulate smoking in public places in Dubai (restaurants, cafes and Shisha cafes) from 18 November 2007. During the first phase smoking regulation was implemented in shopping malls.

Dubai Municipality Public Health Department officials held a meeting in this regard on Thursday with representatives of Dubai Police, Department of Health and Medical Services, Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Department, Economic Development Department and the Roads and Transport Authority.

The meeting discussed the measures to be taken to create awareness among the public

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• Smoking is "One of the Biggest Health Threats" for the Middle East 

Local and international experts on the medical and social effects of smoking have gathered in Dubai to discuss a strategic plan to reduce its impact on health and wellbeing in the region.

Among the issues under discussion were the results of recent research that revealed that 54 percent of smokers in the UAE are younger than 30 years of age, demonstrating the scale of potential future health problems unless the widespread addiction to tobacco is curtailed.

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• Harsh Fines: Smoking Gun 

Smoking in public places could burn a big hole in a smoker's pocket as fines under the new municipal smoking ban will climb ten-fold after a 90-day grace period, a senior municipal official warns.

The measures, implemented beginning September 15, are part of the second phase of the municipal government's efforts to regulate smoking in public places.

The third phase, which will come into force on November 15, will prohibit smoking in all work places, schools, food courts, internet cafés and health clubs.

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• Dubai to begin gradual ban on smoking in public 

Dubai will ban smoking in government buildings, schools and colleges from Thursday, 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.

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

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• Ban on smoking ‘lifted' in city malls 

DUBAI — Dubai Municipality has virtually lifted the ban it had recently campaigned for and imposed on smoking in Dubai's shopping malls, by distancing itself from the entire issue. A statement issued yesterday by the municipality's public relations department and quoting Salem Bin Mesmar, Director of Public Health Department, said, "Dubai Municipality has nothing to do with the banning of smoking in shopping malls".

Khaleej Times had reported just last week of a distinct possibility of the ban on smoking in shopping malls being lifted. The reasons behind the rolling back of an almost successful anti-smoking campaign, and the ban still remains a mystery, and no official at the municipality is willing to answer any queries on the subject.

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• UPDATE 1-Dubai in talks to buy Formula One team 

Dubai is negotiating to buy a Formula One team that will be run from the Gulf emirate, a senior member of the ruling Maktoum family said on Saturday.

A statement issued on behalf of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum named no teams, although a spokesman said there were probably three candidates.

There has been media speculation recently about privately-owned Jordan, which is based at Silverstone, as well as Ford's plans for Jaguar.

High-flying BAR are owned by tobacco giant British American Tobacco (BAT), who have said they want to sell their stake in two years' time. Struggling Minardi could also be a possible target.

"The Emirate of Dubai is pleased to announce that following extensive planning and development, Grand Prix Investments (GPI) is in negotiations to acquire, operate and manage a Formula One team, to be headquartered in Dubai," the statement said.

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• Tobacco smuggler fined $2.8m as court does its duty 

A taxi driver who told customs officers he would "buy and sell" anything has been fined $2.8 million after attempting to smuggle into the country a shipping container full of cigarettes and tobacco leaf.

And Supreme Court Justice Peter Hidden has warned another Sydney man, Abbas Bayatpour, that he will be fined at least $1.396 million when he returns to court next week.

The massive fines - which Supreme Court Justice Jane Matthews said in her judgement two weeks ago were "ruinous" for taxi driver Mourad El Sayed - come about because the courts are required to fine smugglers at least twice the amount of duty evaded.

El Sayed, of Bankstown, attempted to smuggle 6.7 million cigarettes and 15 kilograms of tobacco leaf. . . .

El Sayed said that while on a trip to the Middle East he had arranged in Dubai for a container-load of plastic food containers to be sent to Australia. . . .

El Sayed said that he knew nothing. The man who dispatched the container, Abu Younis, said it had ended up at the wrong destination. "Therefore, kindly ask you to return back the container to Dubai. Also, note that our company will cover all charges for the shipment. Thanking you for your kind co-operation," he wrote to the customs service.

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