New smoking laws to help school children

Dubai municipality's intentions to ban smoking in public places have been welcomed by the emirate's dentists. They claim UAE national schoolchildren will be the key benefactors of the initiative.

Figures released by the Department of Heath and Medical Services (DoHMS) reveal that 14% of UAE nationals in high schools smoke. Soraya Bardshiry, child psychologist at Dr Michael's Dental Clinic in Dubai, has been visiting schools in the UAE for the past 11 years to promote oral hygiene amongst schoolchildren. She suggests the new legislation will even impact children in grade school. "Many of them have tried smoking cigarettes from eight years old," she claims.

She says smoking is a topic she brings up with children in their second grade, and believes it is necessary to tackle the issue from a young age. "Most people think it is very early and you're putting thoughts into their minds, but it's already there.

DoHMS also revealed that 8% of expatriate high school students smoke, and that smoking is equally common amongst boys and girls.

Bardshiry welcomes the proposed initiatives, which includes a ban on shisha smoking in public places, claiming that most of the schoolchildren she speaks to are actually smoking on a regular basis, because they don't consider shisha to be smoking. "But that is not smoking, according to them," she says.

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