Crackdown for no-smoking areas

PUBLIC health inspectors will be handing out fines to restaurant and cafeteria owners who haven’t yet designated special smoking areas, as is provided under the 2004 Health Protection Law for the control of smoking.

The checks are set to take place in the first week of April, during surprise visits by Health Service inspectors.

Special attention will be given to whether the owners of the various properties have assigned separate areas, of satisfactory dimensions and with appropriate ventilation for smokers.

The law states that properties with more than two rooms should designate at least one of them to smokers.

Owners or managers of such properties must:

l Put signs up in the non-smoking area, which clearly state that smoking is not allowed

l Put signs up with general warnings about the dangers of smoking
l Install a sufficient ventilation system in the smoking areas
According to the head of the Health Department, George Yiorgallas: “A catalogue of the properties is being prepared, which we will visit once we are prepared.”
The inspectors will also check hygiene standards on the premises and ensure that practices aren’t being followed that may pose a threat to the public’s health.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.