60 businesses fined for promoting smoking online

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has fined 60 entities for violations related to online promoting of cigarettes and hookah as part of its campaign to fight the electronic promotion of tobacco products, according to a GAM official.

“We are targeting the online promotions because their impact is more powerful and reaches out to a wider audience compared to the on-location promotions,” Mervat Al Mhirat, city deputy manager for health and agricultural affairs at GAM told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

The campaign, which is implemented in cooperation with the CID cyber crimes unit, government institutions and civil society organisations, imposes fines ranging between JD500 and JD1000 on violators, according to Mhirat.

She said that promoters are violating two laws: the Public Health Law which prohibits marketing of tobacco products on one hand, and the Cyber Crimes Law which criminalises using the Internet to commit any offence that violates an existing law on the other.

“Selling tobacco products or offering Shisha in shops and cafes must be licensed and in line with the municipality’s regulations which include putting products out of display or reach, as well as not offering them to individuals under the age of 18,” the GAM official said, stressing that “children and teenagers can easily become victims of online sellers”. 

She noted that all the violations detected and fined so far were committed by businesses, not individuals, although individuals “should be held accountable too”, in accordance with the Cyber Crime Law.

“We could monitor the violating websites, but it is more difficult to monitor the posts on social media, which are of even greater influence,” Mhirat highlighted.  

According to a report issued by the Department of Statistics (DoS) in 2010, 61 per cent of Jordanian families include cigarette smoking members.

Another DoS report issued in 2016 showed that the total spending on tobacco in 2016 amounted to JD602 million, with an average of JD480 per family.

“Smoking cigarettes and hookah puts people at risk of a shorter life as the average life expectancy of regular smokers is five years less than non-smokers,” Health Specialist Othman Abbadi told The Jordan Times, adding that “it is not only about the number of years lived but also about their quality, as smoking increases the risks of several diseases and various types of cancers, not only heart and lungs as generally thought”.

Abbadi also warned of “passive smoking” where second-hand smokers are risk from one-fifth to one-third of the effects suffered by regular smokers.

Hookah, which he described as “a phenomenon”, is equally harmful as cigarettes, if not more. “People are inhaling coal and carbon dioxide when they smoke hookah, which is hurtful for their bodies,” the specialist pointed out.

For Um Ahmad, a mother of six, “in addition to the online promotions of tobacco products on social media, our children see people smoking almost everywhere, which is also a form of promotion.”

“We are trying to protect our children from this poison by raising their awareness on the risks of cigarettes since their childhood, as smoking is becoming a society culture, not just an individual practice,” she added.

Mhirat also announced that GAM has received a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to implement a project for transforming Amman into “a healthy city” that is smoking-free.