A 24-hour-voluntary ban on cigarette sales in Dubai on World No Tobacco Day could be extended to all outlets in the emirate from next year.

Dubai Municipality’s Public Health and Safety Department started the day-long anti-tobacco initiative in 2010 with hardly 50 petrol stations stopping the sale of cigarettes on May 31 in the initial year. On its third anniversary on Thursday, the number of commercial outlets taking part in the campaign rose to nearly 300.

Director of the Department Redha Hassan Salman, who initiated the voluntary drive, said the Municipality will evaluate if the 24-hour voluntary ban could be extended to all outlets in Dubai. “We can think of doing it next year because we have already received the cooperation of many companies,” he told Khaleej Times.

“We have not covered groceries. We can include them also,” said Salman.

His comments came after many shops, other than the ones registered for the voluntary withdrawal of cigarette sales, refrained from selling cigarettes, mistakenly thinking that the municipality had made it compulsory for all shops in Dubai.

The confusion arose after a section of the media quoted the municipality’s press release that said “Dubai Municipality banned the sale of tobacco products for 24 hours in the entire emirate to observe World No Tobacco Day.” However, the release had also described the details of the establishments participating in the campaign to support “Dubai without Smoking” initiative of the Municipality.

“That made it clear that it was not a new rule banning the sale in all shops, but a voluntary move by the participating outlets. I don’t know why people should get confused about it,” Salman said, maintaining that the press release was clear.

Major retailers and over 130 petrol stations were among those who took part in the drive. They displayed banners and boards mentioning that cigarettes will not be sold. Some other shops that had not signed up for the drive also refrained from selling cigarettes to support the initiative. “We had not registered for this. But I decided not to sell cigarettes today after I heard the news in the morning. Then I put a note over the counters that there is no cigarette sale today. It was just to support the cause and our customers also cooperated,” said Aboobacker Cheruvangote, a partner and manager of Al Madina Supermarket in Al Rafa.

“I wish the municipality had announced a total ban on cigarette sales for 24hours yesterday itself so that we could prepare better. And it can be a small step towards a gradual stop on selling cigarettes in the long run,” he said.