Egypt: Overview
Just over one quarter of the entire Egyptian population smokes. Egypt’s rates of cigarette consumption are the highest in the Middle East and North African region. It accounts for just 21% of the region’s population yet is responsible for 24% of the entire region’s total cigarette consumption. Among so-called non-smokers a large proportion consumes other types of tobacco in ways other than cigarettes, such as water pipes (also called shisha, narghile, or hookah).
Egypt ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on February 25, 2005. Current tobacco control measures appear contradictory and offer clear areas for improvement and strengthening.
Existing legislation restricts smoking in certain public places, such as work or other enclosed public places.
Cigarettes have been characterized as an essential good in Egypt (so too are bread and sugar, for example). Taxation on cigarettes remains low. It has been asserted that maintaining an affordable price on cigarettes protects families from budget cuts if smokers are unable to quit.
Advertising and promotion of tobacco products are prohibited from certain public areas such as cinemas, theaters, and sporting clubs according to Egyptian legislation. Advertising of cigarettes is confined to the package itself and is accompanied by the following message: “Smoking is harmful to health and causes death.”
Sources: WHO, Euromonitor, ACS: Tobacco Atlas (second edition), Nassar 2003, FCA
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