Lebanon’s anti-smoking law: will it be amended for better enforcement?

“Lebanon is undeniably the country of all contradictions. We pass laws that we refuse to respect. Only the ones that serve the interests of some people get applied. The anti-smoking law is a perfect example. Just take a stroll through restaurants and cafes that serve shishas: there, non-smokers have no place. We are looked at as if we just landed from another planet. And if we dare protest, we are made to understand that over there, the smokers are the ones that rule, the ones who are in their right,” Georges says, letting his anger and indignation show.

The Tobacco Act, Law 174, came into effect almost seven years ago, on Sept. 3, 2012. But the law was only strictly enforced for four months. By Christmas and New Years that year, it was already being widely ignored. The backslide began when then Minister of Interior Marwan Charbel implied during a TV interview that police would be flexible about enforcing the law during the holiday period. After the holidays, enforcement never picked back up, despite pressure from civil society.

Many activists believe that there is a lack of political will to address the issue and that the minister of tourism, Avedis Guidanian, fears that enacting the ban will harm the tourism sector. Guidanian did not respond to L’Orient-Le Jour’s (OLJ) repeated attempts to reach him for comment.

(Read also : In Lebanon, teenage tobacco use is skyrocketing)

The implementation of law 174 falls under the jurisdiction of four ministers: healthy, economy, tourism and interior. According to Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani: “the enforcement of this law needs firm on-site monitoring, which must be done mainly by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the Internal Security Forces. Unfortunately, smoking isn’t an issue which is taken seriously. Meanwhile, the health bill related to this problem is quite high”.

A specialized unit

Fadi, the head waiter at one of Beirut’s upscale restaurants, is asthmatic. Everyday at work he is exposed to smoke from hundreds of cigarettes and cigars. “At the beginning, the law was respected here, even more so after the restaurant was fined a penalty of 1 million LBP (about $666),” Fadi says. “Unfortunately, we were quick at breaking it, like everything else in this country. To the displeasure of not only the non-smokers who complain because they can no longer enjoy their meals, but also of the employees who are suffocating. The problem is that smokers have no awkwardness or guilt whatsoever. They are not even aware that they are poisoning us. Often, they even wait for us to start serving to send their cigar smoke in our direction.”

When Fadi returns home at night, he can feel the tobacco smoke clinging to his skin. “Even after taking a shower, I keep feeling it in my nose and throat. I have to take some medication in order to feel better. In the morning, the restaurant smells highly of smoke. Even if we air the premises, the smell of old tobacco sticks to the walls and the furniture.”

“Members of Parliament must exercise their mission of supervision and regulation,” says Rania Baroud, coordinator of the national campaign for the application of the Law 174. “Each law will always be challenged and disputed by people whose interests are to take advantage of the prevailing chaos. Let’s use the example of electricity. The owners of the generators will no doubt be affected if a plan providing power 24/7 is set up. If they were to contest this plan, would the government take their demands into consideration and ensure that the law protects their rights? This would be outrageous, no? However, in the case of the application of the anti-smoking law, the state is much more concerned with the interests of the restaurants, pubs and cafes, than with the health of its own citizens.”

For Baroud, proper law enforcement would result in “the creation of a specialized unit within the police with unified standards, including an approach on how to draw the fines and penalties.” During the short period of time the law was enforced, fines were often drawn up using the name of foreign employees serving shisha rather than the name of the venues, she explains. “As a result, we could not trace the fines back to the real person or venue that was responsible”.

8,000 fines within a four months’ period

Currently, there are rumors circulating that, instead of reinstating the ban, an amendment to article 5 of the law is being considered that would restore smoking and non-smoking areas in restaurants, an idea that anti-tobacco activists fiercely oppose. “This is not the first time they are trying to amend it,” says Rima Nakkash, coordinator of the control research group at the American University of Beirut. “A first attempt took place in 2012, well before [the law] came into effect. But this option is unlikely because Lebanon must comply with the regulations of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that it has approved.”

Experience has shown that Law 174 can be applied, according to Nakkash, “if the decision-makers are willing to do so”. During the roughly four months the law was implemented, around 8,000 fines were issued against offenders. Certain parts of the law are also still being applied, such as a ban on advertising on tobacco products and of sponsorships from the tobacco industry, Nakkash explains. “With regard to the warning messages, it was planned to limit them initially to written texts. Now, we should move to using shocking and daring images, which have proven to be efficient in deterring smokers. But the implementing decree has not yet been published,” she adds.

No decisions have been made yet on what to do about the lackluster enforcement of Law 174, according to Georges Okais, a member of the parliamentary committee responsible for monitoring law enforcement. “We have no prejudgments. We are still in the process of collecting ideas,” Okais says, noting that the commission has identified 52 laws, divided into three categories, that have not been implemented.

The first category covers laws that require the creation of oversight bodies. “We sent questions via the Parliament to the relevant ministries. The answers are starting to come in,” says Okais. The second category contains laws that require specialized application decrees, such as the food safety Law. “In order to develop them, we will refer to international experts,” Okais continues. And the third category involves laws that have either been partially enforced or applied in such a way that contradicts their initial intent, such as Law 174 or the Road Safety Act.

“We have not decided what to do next,” Okais says. “What is certain is that decisions will be made in order to respect Lebanon’s commitments to ratified international conventions and public health. We will rely on real-life experiences so that the amendment, if it is made, will allow for a better enforcement of the law.”

(This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 31st of May)