Tobacco sales ban within 250 meters of schools

It will be illegal to sell tobacco products within 250 meters of Jordan’s schools and health institutions from October 1, according to a story in The Jordan Times describing new Health Ministry regulations.

Under the regulations, shops will be allowed to display tobacco products only at payment points, and cigarette packs will have to be sealed and only within the seller’s reach.

Commenting on the new rules, Firas Hawari, director of the King Hussein Cancer Centre’s cancer control office, said the farther the source of cigarettes was from schools the harder it was for students to consume tobacco. He would like to see the distance extended to 500 meters.

“Students have very limited time… especially while waiting for their parents to pick them up,” he was quoted as having told the Times.

Hawari said that the new regulations for displaying cigarettes at shops and supermarkets could contribute to minimising smoking among young people, an issue he described as “one of the biggest problems in Jordan”, but one for which there was “very limited awareness among decision makers and citizens”.

To further curb smoking among children, he called for increasing the prices of tobacco and firmly enforcing the Public Health Law, which bans selling tobacco to children under the age of 18 and prohibits smoking in public areas.

Hawari said that while 30 per cent of Jordanians were smokers, smoking rates among health-sector workers stood at about 40 percent.