DAMMAM, 21 August 2003 — The Dammam municipality plans to set up squads to ensure implementation of the anti-smoking law, which stipulates a fine of SR200 for those who smoke in public places including government departments as well as health and educational institutions.

Jamal ibn Nasser Al-Mulhim, acting undersecretary at the municipality, told Arab News that municipalities would play an important role in executing the law, which was endorsed by the Cabinet last Monday. “We are awaiting instructions from the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs,” he added.

Muhammad Al-Zahrani, supervisor of the Al-Amal Center in Dammam, expressed his hope that the new legislation would help reduce smoking and lower the pressure on clinics that treat smokers.

People in the Eastern Province have welcomed the decision, but many are apprehensive that die-hard smokers will ignore the new regulations.

The anti-smoking law prohibits smoking in public places including the yards surrounding mosques, ministries, government administration offices, schools, health centers, cultural and sports institutions, public and private both, and all means of public transport.

The council also approved a law banning cultivation and production of tobacco and its products, and violators of this rule will be fined SR20,000 and will be asked to bear the cost of destroying the crop.

However, the law will not come into effect until a year after its publication in the official gazette.

Smoking is already banned in government offices, airports, hospitals, on domestic flights and in educational institutions. But few people have been seen following the rules. For instance, at the airports smoking is as rampant as ever.

In the departure lounge at King Fahd International Airport smokers puffing away prior to boarding are a common sight, and nobody has ever been penalized.

Similarly, at the main lounge of the airport smoking is an everyday phenomenon. The authorities have even fitted ashtrays in the chairs. And while smoking has almost been stamped out on domestic flights, the occasional puff raises few eyebrows.

In government departments, smoking is as prevalent as ever. Barring the Eastern Province Governorate, where a total smoking ban is enforced, many other government departments are polluted with cigarette-smoke as any other place where smoking is not banned.

Saudi Aramco is yet another place where smoking is banned at office premises and smokers are required to go outside the office building to satisfy their addiction. The only problem the oil company faces is that smokers can frequently not be found in their workplace.

The government in the recent past has passed various regulations to curb smoking, including increased levy on cigarettes. But according to the agents of various brands, there has been a growth in sales between one to five percent over the last year. The biggest increase of nearly five percent was seen in American cigarettes.

The government last year made it mandatory for tobacco companies to mark cigarette packs “for sale to adults only” and issued instructions to all cigarette outlets not to sell to minors.

However, there is hardly a shopping center or supermarket which is following the rules.