Source: Los Angeles Times blogs
Date: 2010-05-29
Author: Becky Lee Katz In Beirut

The United Arab Emirates may breathe easier under a strict ban on
smoking, the details of which are still being hammered out five
months after the actual bill was signed by President Khalifa bin
Zayed Al Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National
reported this week. . . .

"Tobacco consumption in the gulf region has become an economic,
social and health burden over the past 50 years due to the rapid
and continuous phenomenon of smoking as well as the emergence of
other behaviors such as shisha and medwaakh [tobacco pipe],"
Health Minister Dr. Hanif Hassan said in a statement.

"The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries have worked
for many years on the implementation of several measures aimed at
reducing the usage of tobacco and its products among its
nationals, [including] anti-advertising, determining the
percentage of nicotine and tar in cigarettes, increasing customs
duties on tobacco products and finally the publication of
numerous decisions and legislation to ban smoking in public
places," he continued.

Anti-smoking efforts are gaining momentum, not just in the
Emirates but across the region, signaling a change in the winds
of social mores and attitudes towards public health.

Most recently, Turkey and Syria both banned smoking in public.