Smoking Cessation in the Gulf: Lessons from the UK and Australia
May 31, 2026
In an op-ed to mark World No Tobacco Day on May 31, Dr. Howard Podolsky, CEO of JHAH, explores how the United Kingdom and Australia are battling smoking and vaping with bold new laws.
The World Health Organization describes smoking as “one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced,” and for good reason. Tobacco use kills more than 7 million people each year, including 1.6 million non-smokers who die from exposure to second-hand smoke. Yet tobacco use remains stubbornly high in the GCC — and worryingly, in four of the six GCC nations, it is forecast to remain stable or even climb by 2030.
It is worth considering two recent and significant health policy developments from overseas to inform our thinking about how GCC nations might tackle smoking and the misery it causes. Most notably, the United Kingdom passed an extraordinary new law last month banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2008. This means that anyone aged 17 or younger today will never be able to legally buy cigarettes in the UK.
The UK’s Tobacco and Vapes Act has been described by its government as the most significant public health reform in generations. Indeed, it means the UK stands alone as the only major country to enact such a strict sales ban (the Maldives, which has a far smaller population, introduced a similar ban late last year).
Like GCC nations, the UK is seeking to remodel its healthcare system from one that treats sickness to one that prevents disease. The benefit to patients from this foundational shift is a huge increase in life expectancy, and the benefit to the state is colossal savings from an overburdened health service. Eradication of “preventable” diseases — those that can be all but eliminated by population health interventions, such as heart disease, lung cancer, and stroke associated with tobacco use — is central to this goal.
In Kuwait, 19.2% of adults smoked or used tobacco in 2025, with the figure for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia around 15%, according to WHO data. In Qatar, almost 13% of adults used tobacco products last year, with the UAE and Oman each at nearly 9%. By 2030, the WHO expects tobacco use to have declined in Bahrain and the UAE, remained stable in Kuwait and Qatar, and risen slightly in Oman and Saudi Arabia.
It is no surprise that countries with high smoking rates also suffer the largest proportion of smoking-related deaths. In 2023, among GCC nations, the smoking-related death rate was highest in Kuwait, at nearly 12%, closely followed by Bahrain, at 11.4%, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. In Qatar and the UAE, death rates were 9.1% and 6.4%, respectively, followed by Saudi Arabia with 6% and Oman with 5.4%. Deaths attributed to second-hand smoke are typically higher in nations with the highest rates of tobacco use.
I am excited about what the UK is trying to achieve with its tobacco sales ban. Still, it is important to weigh every population health intervention against the impact it has on civil liberties — in this case, the societal problems caused by smoking versus the individual’s right to smoke. For example, some argue that the cultural importance of shisha across GCC nations means it should be excluded from any sales ban — as long as restrictions are in place to protect non-users from second-hand smoke.
Fundamentally, though, there is no redeeming feature in tobacco use. Smoking is highly addictive and significantly raises the risk of premature death. Second-hand smoke kills people who have never lit a cigarette in their lives — including children. Smoking places an immense burden on the healthcare system because of the amount of sickness it causes.
Interestingly, the new UK law treats vaping very differently from smoking. The UK did not enact a sales ban on vapes, even if it did introduce other measures that aim to curtail their use. The individual’s right-to-choose argument appears to have outweighed the public health argument here, as exhaled vape clouds do not contain as many of the poisonous and cancerous chemicals that second-hand smoke does.
This does not mean that vaping is a worthwhile habit — far from it. Nicotine levels in vapes are typically far higher than in cigarettes, and users become easily addicted. Nicotine itself can impair brain development in people aged under 25. Vapes contain other noxious chemicals that can damage the lungs. And there is not yet enough medical research into the long-term effects of vaping: ignorance does not necessarily mean bliss.
Australia takes a stricter approach to vapes. Since July 2024, it has classed vapes as therapeutic goods that can only be sold at pharmacies — not at vape shops, convenience stores, or indeed other retailers. Purchasers must show a pharmacist their ID to confirm they are aged 18 or older, and the pharmacist must talk to them about alternative methods for quitting smoking or managing nicotine dependence. Vape flavors are restricted to tobacco, menthol, and mint, and vape packaging must adhere to pharmaceutical standards.
Like the UK’s tobacco sales ban, Australia’s vape restrictions are food for thought for healthcare policymakers across the GCC. Meanwhile, at the grassroots level, healthcare organizations such as mine have a big role to play in helping people to stop smoking. My hospital, as others do, has a multifaceted smoking cessation program that offers nicotine replacement aids, counselling, and community outreach, among other initiatives. The program treated more than 500 patients last year.
We also recently enlisted the help of a “patient champion” to speak candidly about how smoking had damaged her health. Aisha, who has lung cancer, spoke from her hospital bed about addiction, fatigue, her struggle to breathe, her insomnia and anxiety, and the side effects of her chemotherapy. Her story is a graphic reminder that real human suffering lies beneath the crucial debate on smoking policy.