Dubai International City residents' sleep goes up in smoke

Dubai: Residents in International City have had sleepless nights for the past three months, they say, blaming it on a shisha cafe that has opened on the ground floor of their building.

More than 30 signatures have been collected on a petition which the residents claim to have submitted to Dubai Municipality.

The municipality introduced new rules for regulating shisha smoking in the emirate, the deadline of which was the end of last December.

These rules include regulations on smoking shisha outside in residential areas.

Resident B.W. of F-12 building, in the China Cluster, said: "Ever since the shop opened it has been a nuisance because of the visitors. We are forced to have passive smoking round the clock, and we are kept awake until 4am. We cannot open our balcony doors because of the smell."

Other Municipality regulations for shisha cafes include a ban on smoking inside for cafes less than 1,500 square feet.

Small cafes have been instructed to move to bigger premises to permit adequate ventilation and to make necessary air conditioning amendments under the new regulations.