Ban in Iran

Published on Wed, 26 December 2007 6:12 pm

Worldly-spread phenomenon reaches The Southern Asia. Saturday is the day when smoking ban was launched in Iran- 18th largest country in the world with population over seventy million.

Smoking is prohibited in all public organizations, hotels, restaurants, tea houses and coffee shops.

Speaking about smoking, a traditional Persian water-pipe, which is an “essential” article for Iranian tea houses, is more widely preferred in this region.The ordinance will be strictly controlled by police officials. For the first violation, the offender gets a warning, the second infringement with temporary closure and, in case of repetition, final closure of their enterprise.

According to the ban, it is forbidden to offer and/or smoke Persian water-pipe in any public places, as for example are Iranian tea houses and coffee shops where pipe becomes a part of tradition.

Banning of this mean of smoking will heavenly affect that businesses as many will refuse to attend that locals if there lightening up is banned.In March in-car smoking was banned, but drivers widely ignored it, though fines up to 14 US dollars for not respecting were introduced.

More heavy fines were introduced for selling tobacco products to underaged children: starting with 65 dollars to 1,400 for repeat violations.