Dubai restaurants to face new smoking rules

Restaurants in Dubai which allow smoking on the premises must display signs warning potential customers from August.

Cafes and restaurants, including shisha cafes, will face a warning, fines and the prospect of being temporarily shut down if they do not comply to the new rules, which are as a result of work between the Dubai Health Authority and the Department of Economic Development.

Walid Abdul Malik, a senior official at the Department of Economic Development's consumer protection division, told The National: “The campaign aims to protect basic human rights, including the right to take informed decision.”

He added that young people “should not be given a chance to be part of or involved in harmful practices like smoking.”

"There was a lot of panic from businesses when the no smoking rules came into force in shopping malls a few years ago,” Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the National Tobacco Control Committee at the Health Ministry told the newspaper. "They were worried that people would stop going and it would ruin trade, but that never happened."