Restaurant Owners Syndicate Boycotts Smoking Ban
Former head of the restaurant owners syndicate Paul Ariss announced on Wednesday the boycott of the smoking ban that has been imposed in Lebanon.
“After authorities implemented the smoking ban, work deteriorated by 60 percent,” Ariss told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).
Demonstrators blocked the Sodeco road in Ashrafiyeh after calls by the Syndicate to protest the damage inflicted by the ban.
Ariss resigned on October 19 in protest against the smoking ban.
Restaurant owners had previously protested the ban, saying it will affect the country’s “most important sector.”
The ban came into effect in September in accordance to Law 174, which passed a year ago.
The National Tobacco Control Program of the Health Ministry says more than 3,500 Lebanese die each year from tobacco-related diseases.
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