Lebanon adopts laws regulating smoking

Lebanon's new no-smoking laws ban some tobacco advertising and requires a pictorial warning about smoking hazards on cigarette packs, officials said. The Parliament Wednesday backed a law putting an end to smoking in all enclosed public places, including bars, restaurants, offices and airplanes, The Daily Star in Beirut reported. The law bans tobacco advertising on billboards and in magazines and prohibits tobacco companies from sponsoring events and music concerts. It also requires tobacco companies to print a pictorial warning covering 40 percent of the area on each pack of cigarettes. Hotels will be allowed to set aside up to 20 percent of their rooms for smokers. Parliament said businesses will have a set period of time to prepare for the law, although no time frame was mentioned in the report. Officials said Lebanon was obligated to pass legislation controlling tobacco products since it signed onto the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005. Copyright 2011 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.