Jump to full article: Beirut Daily Star (lb), 2009-10-28
Author: Dalila Mahdawi Daily Star staff
Intro: There are now smoking bans in place in over 70 countries across the world, but in Lebanon, where smokers seem to vastly outnumber nonsmokers, there have been no such efforts to curb tobacco use. In fact, Lebanon seems to be something of a smoker's safe haven. Gemmayzeh, arguably Beirut's most popular bar and restaurant district, will on Wednesday host its second smoke-free night this year in a bid to raise awareness on the dangers of tobacco.
Following the success of a no-smoking night in February, volunteers from the Beirut Metropolitan and Sahel Metn Rotaract Clubs decided to organize another to urge Lebanese authorities to encourage tobacco-free habits across the country. "We're looking for sustainability in this campaign," said Saiid Saber, a Rotaract volunteer.
"Our objective is to have regular smoke-free nights in all areas and in the long-term, to present a draft law to Parliament which restricts smoking in public places." The clubs have also drawn up an online petition urging Lebanon to ban smoking in public places.
Saber said that although Beirut is a signatory to the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, it has failed to ratify the document and has done little to enforce it.
"Here things have been done in slow motion," he
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