Tag: United Arab Emirates

  • Seeking pure health

    Seeking pure health

    Ajman municipality, part of the United Arab Emirates, is banning shisha smoking in parks, green spaces and beaches, according to a story in The Khaleej Times quoting the Al Bayan newspaper.

    People who violate the ban will face fines of up to Dh1,000.

    Al Bayan said the municipality was committed to providing a healthy and clean environment for residents and visitors to the emirate.

    Khalid Moeen Al Hossani, executive director of the Public Health and Environment division of the municipality, said the ban was being imposed under the directions of His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, the Head of the department.

    Al Hossani said the health and safety of individuals, along with their happiness, was the goal that everybody sought and strived to achieve.

    Gardens, green spaces and beaches were the most important places for people to seek rest, the perfect atmosphere and pure health.

  • Teen smoking ‘staggering’

    Teen smoking ‘staggering’

    A ‘staggering number of teenagers’ are turning to tobacco use in the United Arab Emirates, a Federal National Council (FNC) session was told on Tuesday, according to a story in The Khaleej Times.

    “Twenty-one percent of the UAE population are into smoking and 15 percent of them are teenagers under the age of 18,” said FNC member Saeed Al Rumaithi.

    Al Rumaithi said it was crucial to launch more anti-tobacco awareness programs in schools because the number of teenage smokers was of massive concern.

    The session looked also at the positive outcomes of initiatives carried out by the National Anti-Tobacco Committee (NATC) formed by the Ministry of Health and Prevention.

    Meanwhile, the Minister of Health and Prevention, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al Owais, told the session that the issue was “complex”.

    Al Owais said the NATC had already had some success. Fourteen quit-smoking clinics across the UAE had seen a 25 percent increase between 2015 and 2016 in the number of people attending the clinics.

    Furthermore, 20 percent of the people who went to the clinics ended up quitting.

    The NATC had increased by 150 percent the number of doctors specializing in the field.

  • Stocking up in the UAE

    Stocking up in the UAE

    Grocery stores and smokers in the United Arab Emirates are stockpiling cigarettes to put off the impact of a new sales tax that is due to come into effect next month and that will increase prices by 100 percent, according to a story in The Khaleej Times.

    Some smokers are buying and taking away as many cartons as they can, while others are making advance payments so that grocery stores reserve cigarettes for them.

    At the same time, the growing demand from customers is compelling the grocery stores to make up-front payments to cigarette distributors.

    Grocery-store owners reportedly told the Khaleej Times that because they were having to pay up front, they were having to ask their regular customers to pay in advance and collect their cigarettes a few days later.

    One problem is that suppliers are limiting the number of cigarettes they reserve for grocery stores.

  • UAE may ease ban on e-cigarette sales

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is introducing regulations that may ease the ban on the sale of e-cigarettes within the country.

    Authorities from Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (Esma) in January sent a draft technical regulation to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which notified them of the UAE’s intention to regulate the sale of e-cigarettes. The document sent to the WTO states that the objective of the regulation is to protect human health by ensuring quality products are available in the market.

    The sale of e-cigarettes is currently banned in the UAE, which follows the cautious position adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a story in the Khaleej Times. Regulation of the sale of e-cigarettes is believed to be based on recent recommendations from the WHO that examine the emerging evidence on the health impacts of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), of which electronic cigarettes are the most common prototype, according to the Times.

    The health ministry of the UAE has banned the sale of e-cigarettes because experts have not yet determined the long-term effects of such devices on users.

    “E-cigarettes are considered as harmful as tobacco and not as a smoking cessation tool,” a source from the ministry was quoted as saying in the Times story. “Currently conflicting studies are going on this matter which cannot be used as justifications to allow products into the country,” added the source.

    Despite the ban on e-cigarette sales, the devices have been illegally imported and sold across throughout the UAE.