Regional professionals call for smoking ban at work

Pressure is mounting on Middle East companies to ban smoking in the workplace, according to a survey by GulfTalent.com, an online recruitment portal. The survey, which canvassed 5000 people in nine Arab countries, found that 98% of professionals favoured a restriction on smoking in offices.

54% preferred a complete ban on smoking inside office premises, while a further 44% believed that the workplace should be largely smoke-free, with smoking only permitted in designated areas.

Around 55% of companies surveyed have a complete ban on indoor smoking, while 36% permit smoking in designated areas only. However, many companies with bans fail to enforce them. According to GulfTalent.com, HR managers feel government legislation would help them enforce bans within their organisations.

Egypt and Jordan have the highest proportion of executive smokers at 38%, while Oman is the lowest, with only 20% of employees smoking. Arab nationals are greater smokers than their Asian and Western colleagues, and more men confess to be smokers (36%) than women (18%). Oman leads the anti-smoking drive in the region, with 65% of companies having a complete smoking ban. Kuwait is the most smoker-friendly country, with only 42% of firms banning smoking in the workplace. A pack of 20 still costs just a few dollars in GCC countries and the few bans that exist are barely enforced.

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Smokingg Ban
Posted by The Thinker, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday 30 September 2007 at 15:00 UAE time

The smoking ban is the best thing to happen. While it is bad for the smoker's health, it is even bad to the passive smokers due to irritation, stress caused if the smoker is a senior employee and believes that he has the right to smoke and obviously the passive smoke being more dangerous to non-smokers. A ban should immediately be applied to smoking at work.

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