The Public Utilities and Environment Committee approved the proposal with a desire for the government represented by the relevant ministry to restore ministerial decision No. (83) of 2006 regarding the requirements of cafes and restaurants that provide tobacco and its derivatives for smoking purposes.
The proposal includes the desire of the government, represented by the (Ministry of Health), to issue the necessary decisions to prevent the opening of cafes offering hookah in areas near residential neighborhoods, homes, schools, mosques, and settling the conditions of existing cafes.
For its part, the Ministry of Health stated that the legislation in force represented in Law No. (8) of 2009 regarding the fight against smoking and tobacco of all kinds, and Resolution No. (2) of 2011 issuing the requirements that must be met in restaurants, cafes and other stores that offer tobacco and its derivatives for smoking purposes, may include Rulings and health requirements that must be met in these stores, including The requirements contained in Resolution No. (83) of 2006, the abolition of the proposal with a desire, was also issued recently Resolution No. (93) of 2023 issuing the regulatory requirements for construction in various regions in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where this decision included detailed requirements on “classification of restaurants and cafes (FB ).
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture stated that organizing work in restaurants and cafes and other stores that offer tobacco and its derivatives for smoking purposes fall within the jurisdiction of another government agency after the issuance of Law No. (8) of 2009 regarding the fight against smoking and tobacco of all kinds, and since the aforementioned law and the decisions implemented for it lost The role of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture was limited to studying licensing applications for the cafe in terms of the site In any commercial store after ensuring that the requirements for the site are available according to the classification and organizational requirements for construction issued by Resolution No. (28) of 2009, in terms of the fact that the site is located on a commercial street or within a commercial voucher.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that the classification of regions as residential, commercial or other areas is carried out by the competent authority to do so, according to that work on issuing the license to provide hookah in cafes and restaurants by the Ministry of Industry and Trade after verifying these classifications, through the available electronic systems, This is in accordance with the laws and decisions organized for this issue.
The Anti -Smoking Association confirmed its approval of the proposal with a desire; This is in line with the strategic goals for which the Bahraini Anti -Smoking Association was established in the year 1979 AD; This is to reduce the increase in new numbers to join the list of new smokers from our beloved kingdom, and its agreement with the laws and regulations issued by the World Health Organization and the National Committee for Combating Smoking, and the tobacco control decisions issued by the Council of Health Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the announcement of the World Health Organization (Manama City Healthy) as the first capital in the eastern Mediterranean region, which is a Bahraini and Gulf achievement Bahrain places in the ranks of developed countries in the field of health care.
The association indicated that opening new cafes is an useless investment; Because of its harm to humans, the environment, and the national economy, and that the increase in opening of cafes and the presentation of hookahs and their derivatives without applying sufficient conditions, near housing, hospitals, schools, institutes, among children, young and school students, will lead to crawling on residential areas, harm to young people and parents, and the continuation of the phenomenon of sleeping young and young people to The first hours of dawn, some of these cafes and restaurants turn To the struggles and incubators of deviation, locking, hookah abuse, possibly drugs, and the like of things that are more fearful.
The association called for adopting a future strategic plan to make the Kingdom of Bahrain a country free of all types and forms of smoking, as happened in New Zealand, which decided to be the first tobacco -free country, and Turkmenistan, whose president issued a decree prohibiting the sale of all types of tobacco in the country, which means practically in practice The smoking ban is completely, and the decree also includes imposing fines of 1200 pounds on any merchant that is done Its seizure sells tobacco in the country, and this will serve the development projects of the Ministry of Health, which promotes public health and the environment, such as the initiative (cities free of smoking), and this is the general trend now for some countries to get rid of smoking permanently.
