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Iran parliament law bans smoking in public

TEHRAN: Parliament on Sunday passed a law banning smoking in public places in Iran, a country with five million smokers.

Tehran radio said the law banned smoking in public places, including holy shrines, mosques, government offices, factories, banks, hospitals, cinemas, hotels, public transport, bus terminals, restaurants, schools and universities.

The law has to be approved by the clergy-dominated Guardian Council which vets parliament decisions before they take effect.

The law prohibits the sale or purchase of cigarettes on the streets, but shops may continue selling cigarettes. Violators of the ban will face a fine of between 20,000 and 100,000 rials ($7 and $33).

Abbas Sheibani, an advocate of the bill in parliament, said the law aimed to limit tobacco consumption and warned that 30 percent of deaths caused by lung cancer were related to smoking.

Opponents of the law warned it could lead to trouble.

"Enforcement of this law in tea houses will practically introduce problems," said Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri.

"In many areas we shall have tens of local complaints and fights and difficulties in proving who smoked and who sold tobacco...This only adds to confrontations and discomforts in our society," Mahmood Reza Astaneh said in the debate broadcast live on Tehran radio.

An official of the state-run Tobacco Company told Reuters there were five million smokers in Iran consuming 150 million cigarettes a day. Iran produces 50 million cigarettes a day, or a third of the demand. The rest is smuggled into the country.

In 1992 the Guardian Council blocked a bill passed by the parliament requiring the government to phase out import and sale of cigarettes over seven years because it did not envisage substitute sources of revenue for the lost tobacco tax.-Reuter