Smoking in Saudi Arabia

Smoking in Saudi Arabia is banned in airports,[1] workplaces, universities, research centers, hospitals,[2] government buildings, all public places,[3] places involved with tourism, and in and around all places associated with religion, education, public events, sporting establishments, charity associations, all forms of public transport and their associated facilities, plants for manufacturing or processing items, and a large proportion of public places.[4]

Statistics taken by the Ministry of Health in 2007 indicated that 75.4% of the population believed public smoking should be prohibited.[2]

"Official figures" from 2012 indicate there were somewhere around six million smokers in the country, including eight hundred thousand students in intermediate and high school. Around one tenth of smokers were women.[3]

A study conducted in 2009 found smoking in all age groups was widespread. The lowest median percentage of smokers was university students (~13.5%) while the highest was elderly people (~25%). The study also found the median percentage of male smokers to be much higher than that of females (~26.5% for males, ~9% for females).[5]

  1. ^ "Smoking Banned At Airports". Arab News. June 27, 2010. Archived from the original on June 27, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  2. ^ a b Ghanem, Renad (February 7, 2012). "Workplace Ban Helps Smokers Skive Off Work". Arab News. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  3. ^ a b Toumi, Habib (August 1, 2012). "Saudi Arabia Stresses Ban on Public Smoking". Gulf News. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Bassiony, M. M. (2009). "Smoking in Saudi Arabia". Saudi Med J. 30 (7): 876–81. PMID 19617999.