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The authorities have started cracking the whip, forcing shops situated within 500m of schools to stop selling cigarettes. The law ...

The authorities have started cracking the whip, forcing shops situated within 500m of schools to stop selling cigarettes.The law passed way back ‘in 2002’, prohibiting the sale of cigarettes within 500m of a school, was enforced strictly only last month, when supermarkets and stores near schools were sent a final letter ordering them to stop selling the killer sticks, sources said.

"We stopped selling cigarettes at both the LuLu stores as of November 30," said a LuLu Hypermarket official. He said that there were more than two schools in the 500m vicinity of both its branches.The Frij Al Nasser branch of Family Food Centre (FFC), which has an Arabic school nearby, has also stopped selling the stuff. "We’ve had to stop selling cigarettes since last month," an official said.

According to a study conducted by the health authorities last year, there were approximately 100,000 smokers in Qatar, and 3000 of them on an average died of the killer habit every year.The study revealed that almost 20% of all government school students in the country were addicted to smoking. About 15% of them were boys while 4.5% were girls.About 46% of the students said they bought cigarettes directly from shops although the outlets are not permitted by law to sell them to children.