Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Muscat: If you are planning to light up a cigarette, look around. You may be in an area where smoking is prohibited.
As part of its efforts to promote public health and better the environment, the Muscat Municipality has put together a series of measures. Besides prohibition on smoking in enclosed public places, the latest order specifies other places where smoking is prohibited.
The new regulations also list the places where smoking is allowed, under certain conditions. The decision also prohibits smoking in public transport system such as buses, taxis, airplanes, ships and boats.
According to Muscat Municipality, “An enclosed public space means all places accessible to the public or places of collective use regardless of their ownership or the right to enter them and the word enclosed includes any space covered by a roof and bounded by one or more walls or sides, regardless of the type of materials used in the construction of the roof, wall or siding and also regardless of whether the construction is permanent or temporary”.
The latest decision also puts a number of conditions for smoking zones. For the approval of a designated place for smokers, prior permission has to be obtained from the Municipal Health Affairs Department. These places must meet the safety and fire-control standards and owners of these places must ensure that smoking is permitted only in the designated place.
The owners should attach the municipal licence with the application form for seeking permission to have a smoking area. They should provide a comprehensive plan of the shop and indicate the designated place for smoking and mention the spaces, in addition to providing engineering diagrams of the ventilation and air conditioning system showing the complete separation between the designated places for smokers and non-smokers to obtain preliminary written approval before implementation.
Along with the assurance that the place should be completely isolated from non-smoking areas, its area should not be less than 20 square metres regardless of whether the designated place is equipped with a ventilation system or an air filter, and it also requires clear markings on the designated places for smokers.
To avoid the occurrence of any disaster as a result of fires and fumes, these places must meet the safety and fire-fighting conditions of the buildings, and the officials of the departments of the mentioned closed public places must not allow smoking except in the designated place, and alert the public to regulate smoking inside these places.
Administrators of closed public places must remove ash trays from all closed public places and place it at a distance from the entrance. The administrators should also not allow persons under the age of 18 to enter places designated for smoking. Smoking is also prohibited in houses of worship, educational institutions, government institutions and health and sports facilities.
The latest decision clarifies the administrative sanctions will be slapped upon violators of the rules.
Violators will be punished under the Oman Penal Code with a fine of OMR100 for the first and second violation. A fine of OMR300 for each subsequent violation after the second violation will be imposed. Anyone who continues to commit the violation after receiving a notification from the municipality may be fined not more than OMR25 for each day, provided that the total fine does not exceed OMR 1,000, imprisonment for a maximum of three months, or both.
In case of violation by an outlet, licensed by the municipality, it may be temporarily closed for not more than three days the first time, and for not more than seven days the second time.
