Tougher government measures to combat smoking have come into force in Jordan, with a number of cafés, electronic gaming centres and shops sealed and closed, while oversight has been expanded to markets, parks and public facilities. The campaign focuses on curbing the spread of shisha and tobacco products among children and young people, and preventing them from being served or sold to anyone under 18.
Hassan directives tighten penalties for selling tobacco to minors
The measures followed directives from Jordanian Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan to the ministries of health and interior and relevant authorities to tighten inspections and prevent shisha from being brought into parks and public facilities, alongside applying legal penalties to establishments that serve shisha or sell tobacco products to minors.
Commercial and service establishments in various parts of the kingdom were closed after monitoring authorities recorded violations involving the serving of shisha and the sale of tobacco products to people below the legal age. The closures included cafés, electronic gaming centres and shops, reflecting the shift from government directives to field action against violators.
Hassan ordered the activation of Article 63 of Public Health Law No. 47 of 2008 and its amendments, which allows legal action to be taken against violating establishments, potentially including closure. It also holds establishment owners responsible for selling tobacco or serving shisha to people below the age permitted by law.
Health Ministry expands inspections around schools and markets
Health Minister Ibrahim Al-Badour said the ministry had begun intensifying inspection campaigns to identify violations, explaining that about 500 health inspectors would monitor establishments and markets across the kingdom. The campaigns will pay particular attention to areas around schools and places where smoking among students is prevalent.
Al-Badour said selling individual cigarettes to students constituted a legal violation warranting accountability. He added that inspections would not be limited to cafés and shops, but would extend to vehicles used to deliver tobacco products and shisha to homes, in an effort to address methods of circumventing the restrictions.
The minister said vehicles proven to have been used in deliveries that violate the law would be seized and held pending referral to the relevant authorities. This forms part of the expansion of oversight beyond commercial establishments, rather than limiting monitoring to direct sales inside shops. Al-Badour warned that the age at which people begin smoking was falling, citing cases among children aged 12 and 13.
He said Jordan ranked first among Arab countries for the prevalence of smoking relative to its population, based on the statistics he cited, placing the protection of children and students at the forefront of the new campaign. In the capital, Amman, owners of commercial establishments expressed differing views on the measures and their effectiveness.
Café and shop owners assess the difficulty of preventing indirect sales
Mohammad Al-Qadoumi, a café owner, said he had barred children and minors from entering his establishment even before the government directives were issued, including when they were accompanied by their guardians. His position reflects the adoption by some establishments of precautions that go beyond refusing to serve shisha to minors. Hamam Jabr, a grocery shop owner, meanwhile said banning the sale of cigarettes to children was necessary but not sufficient on its own to address smoking at an early age.
He explained that minors could circumvent the ban by asking adults to buy tobacco products on their behalf, making indirect sales more difficult to control. Jabr said he refused to sell cigarettes to children, considering that tackling the phenomenon should begin with the family and school.
Amman Municipality expands smoking ban in public parks and viewing areas
He said the success of the government measures required social and educational oversight to operate alongside shop inspection campaigns, given the difficulty of monitoring some violations that take place outside establishments subject to direct supervision. The measures extend to parks, public gardens and viewing areas, as the Greater Amman Municipality prepares to expand its monitoring of these sites.
The municipality will initially rely on awareness-raising and warnings before issuing violations to people who continue smoking after being warned, in accordance with the Public Nuisances Prevention Regulation. The municipality said the ban would cover traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and shisha, and that its purpose was to protect users of public facilities, not to collect fines.
Warning signs will be installed at the locations covered, alongside awareness campaigns before action is taken against people who insist on smoking after being cautioned. The monitoring plan covers about 145 neighbourhood parks and five major parks, as well as public viewing areas.
The municipality will reinforce its inspection teams with eight monitors and conduct joint patrols in co-operation with security agencies to oversee enforcement of the ban and deal with violations in facilities open to the public. Monitoring rounds are set to be intensified during evening hours and weekends, particularly at sites where shisha-serving activities are carried out randomly.
The measures include confiscating shishas used in illegal sales, alongside closer monitoring of places visited by families and children. Officials link the measures to growing concerns about people starting to smoke at an early age, as well as non-smokers’ exposure to smoke in shared spaces, particularly children and families in parks and public facilities.
The plan therefore combines action against sales to minors, efforts to limit smoking in public places and monitoring of delivery services. Bassam Hijjawi, head of the Jordanian National Society for Tobacco Control, said the belief that shisha was less harmful than cigarettes was incorrect, warning that smoking it was linked to heart disease, respiratory disease and cancer.
He explained that the harms of shisha were not limited to its users but also affected people around them in shared spaces. Hijjawi added that shisha smoke contained nicotine and toxic chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco and charcoal, exposing non-smokers to health risks as well.
He estimated that a one-hour shisha session could be equivalent to smoking about 60 cigarettes in terms of health risks, urging compliance with the new instructions to protect public health. The actual closures, the increase in the number of inspectors and the expansion of oversight to parks and vehicles leave the authorities with the task of continuing to enforce the decisions rather than limiting them to temporary campaigns.
Officials and establishment owners say reducing minors’ access to tobacco requires the participation of families, schools and the commercial sector, alongside the work of the ministries of health and interior and municipal authorities.
