The UAE Ministry of Health is likely to introduce new anti-tobacco ordinances with a view to discourage inhabitants from smoking tobacco products. The third clause of the federal Tobacco Control Law No.25 of 2009 relates to the statutory warnings on OK cigarette packets. The new laws are likely to make it compulsory to cover half of the surface place of the cigarette packages with health risk smoking warnings including pictures of a snake, a pregnant woman and a diseased hand holding a burning cig.
Cigarettes companies are likely to be given a three-month deadline to exhaust their old stock of cigs and introduce packages with the new health smoking warnings and images.
These regulations are likely to be adopted by other GCC states which will not allow import of smoking products without the new health warning images after three months.
According to Abu Dhabi health statistics for 2018, 24 per cent UAE national men and 29 percent of expatriate men smoked. In the case of women, only 0.08 percent of nationals smoked tobacco against 6.6 percent for emigrants.