The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against smoking in the media — in films, TV and in the press, all of which is common in the Arab world. The WHO expressed dismay at the large number of people who were smoking, drinking and abusing drugs in television series and films shown during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The WHO warned that the trend would have devastating effects on young people and children, persuading them to try the murderous habits and encouraging the tobacco industry to go ahead with their plans to attract as many young people as possible to add to an already five million who die from smoking in the world every year.

In Britain, a recent study said that banning smoking in public places would reduce each year by 300,000 the number of people who smoke in the country and that that measure alone might save the lives of another 150,000 Britons.

Doctors have been warning of the serious effects of smoking on public health and have urged governments to enact legislation banning the sale of tobacco. British scientists have called on their government to take practical steps in this direction.

Here in Saudi Arabia, smoking is omnipresent in every public place. While at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, I started looking for a place free of smokers where I could sit undisturbed. I noticed that the electronic board showing departure and arrival times was reminding passengers that smoking is strictly forbidden anywhere on the airport premises. There are even signs in other languages with the same warning. The reality, however, as we all know, is something else.

Everywhere you look in any of our airports, you see people smoking and this includes airline staff, employees from various government departments and of course arriving and departing passengers.

Why is it evidently impossible to enforce a strict ban on smoking at our airports? Not only is smoking harmful to those who smoke but it has been proven that it is also harmful to those who are in contact with smokers.

The number of people suffering because of smoking and the vast sums spent on importing cigarettes and tobacco should make us wake up and slap an immediate ban on the sale of cigarettes.

Why haven’t we acted? Why do we continue to hesitate instead of acting to protect people in public places, beginning in airports? Royal decrees and fatwas (religious edicts) were issued long ago and all banned smoking and warned of its dangers.