Looking through the smoke to gauge feasibility of a ban

Dubai: Cigarettes cost much less here than in Europe and America and smokers can light up everywhere smoking is the most popular pastime at every park, cafe, and shopping mall.

But all of this may change in the following months.

As reported in Gulf News, a few weeks ago the UAE jumped on board with a World Health Organisation tobacco convention that is seeking to eliminate smoking in public areas.

Last year, the Dubai Municipality tried to prohibit smoking in shopping malls, but was not successful.

So, the question arises: Will the ban actually be enforced this time, and if it does, will smokers in Dubai stop lighting up in public?

In a Gulf News poll: Do you think the UAE's public smoking ban will work? 51.5 per cent said yes, 44.5 per cent voted no and 4 per cent unsure.

Gulf News took to the streets, sifted through the smoke to find out what the city's smokers and non-smokers think.

"You just can't stop people from smoking, so they should just let it be open, let it be cool," said Mohammad Hussain, a non-smoking UAE national who was surrounded by smokers at a coffee shop. "The problem is that you can't avoid smoke in public places. If you put pressure on the smokers to stop in public, then they'll just smoke more."

Across the coffee shop, though, Robyn Vines, was gasping for air, ducking underneath the clouds of smoke that were rolling through the air.

"The ban is a good idea here," said Vines, an Australian. "They have banned smoking in public in the West, and it has been successful, because people have realised that passive smoking is just as dangerous as active smoking. People need to realise that smoking can cause health hazard for everyone around you. So prohibiting smoking in public is a way of protecting others."

Howard Waller was having lunch with two friends in a smoky restaurant. The trio was an island of non-smokers in a sea of ash and cigarettes.

"If we had realised that people were smoking here then we wouldn't have even come here," said Waller, a non-smoker from South Africa.

His friend Sean McKeown agreed.

"The sooner they pass this ban, the better," said McKeown, who is from Ireland, a country that banned all smoking in public about two years ago. "In Ireland, the smoking ban is fabulous."

But across the mall at a coffee shop, Shahid Sattar and Esmail Yousuf argued that any sort of smoking ban will never work in a smoker-friendly place.

They spoke of a failed attempt at banning smoking last year at a mall in Bur Dubai.

"You can't stop a chain smoker from not smoking," said Sattar, a Pakistani raised in Dubai for most of his life. "It doesn't matter if there is a ban or not, it won't change anything."

While Sattar is a non-smoker, Yousuf, a UAE national, is not.

"I'd keep smoking in public even if there was a ban," said Yousuf, while taking a long drag at his cigarette.

At a smoky shisha den in Deira, Mousa Najl and several other avid smokers debated the idea of a smoking ban. "A better idea would be to just increase the price of cigarettes, as opposed to banning smoking everywhere," said Najl from Lebanon.

Najl only smokes shisha, but he said he is confident that the ban will not work.

Across the street from the café, Abdul Naseer Toor sitting in a park near the Deira Taxi Station said he will support any ban that would make parks smoke-free. If the ban passes, then it is likely that smoking will be prohibited in open-air places like parks.

"A park is a healthy place, so I don't want to be sitting next to smokers," said Toor, an Indian, lounging on a bench in the late afternoon sun.

On Bank Street in Bur Dubai, Charito Paduit, a Filipino, was more concerned about a street filled with cigarette butts than the health risks.

"So many smokers are throwing their cigarettes onto the ground," she said, while running to catch a bus. "They should ban smoking in public and then fine people who continue to smoke."

Nearby, Kiran Lalwani, an Indian, and Ruby Alejo, a Filipino, were taking a break from their jobs at a bank. Alejo was puffing on a cigarette, but Lalwani was not. They were both in favour of the ban. "I'm a smoker," said Alejo, "But I wouldn't mind not smoking in public. I will just have to be disciplined. We all will."