Anti-smoking campaign in Lebanon

Yesterday, the American University of Beirut has declared various areas of its campus to be officially smoke free. This makes it one of the first companies in Lebanon with an official smoke free policy.

The importance of having smoke free zones has also caught up with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism. Together with the Lebanese Society of Family Medicine, they have set up an on-line survey regarding smoking in restaurants. If you feel restaurants should or should not have smoke free areas, then feel free to fill out their survey here.

So far, 90+ percent of the respondents have indicated they would favor a non smoking zone in restaurants. I wish they would have added the question if a restaurant should be fully smoke free, like in the USA and certain countries in Europe. But that might be stretching it for Lebanon, a country that welcomes you with security guards at the airport who are smoking right beneath the non-smoking signs