Cancer foundation to issue smoke-free zone certificates for local institutions

AMMAN — The King Hussein Cancer Foundation and the King Hussein Cancer Centre (KHCC) will start issuing “smoke-free zone” certificates to institutions that ban smoking in all their indoor facilities, a KHCC official said Wednesday.

The certification programme aims to highlight the efforts of institutions committed to the Public Health Law, which prohibits smoking in public areas, and to create “positive incentives” for others, according to Rasha Bader, head of planning and project management at the KHCC’s Cancer Control Office.

“The programme seeks to create smoke-free areas to protect the health of non-smokers,” she said.

The programme is open to restaurants, cafés, schools, hospitals and companies with a minimum of 80 employees, in addition to commercial complexes and malls, according to Bader. 

Eligible institutions should be smoke-free since their establishment or for a minimum of nine months from World No Tobacco Day, marked annually on May 31.

“The application form is available on the foundation’s website; applicants can download it, fill it out and send it back,” Bader told The Jordan Times in a phone interview, adding that the deadline is March 20.

HH Princess Dina Mired is scheduled to honour qualified institutions in an official celebration marking World No Tobacco Day, the KHCC official said. 

“According to the application form, qualified institutions are to take part in spreading social awareness against tobacco,” Bader said.

Institutions that “doubt their eligibility” are also encouraged to apply, she added, because the KHCC will assist applicants that are not selected in becoming smoke-free.