Laws are in place but not strictly enforced or followed
Jump to full article: Gulf News (ae), 2010-02-04
Author: Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Intro: Experts estimate that smoking in Egypt costs around 8 million pounds annually as around 85 billion cigarettes are smoked per year. Salah is one of nearly 13 million Egyptian smokers, who have been the target of a high-profile anti-smoking campaign launched over recent years.
More than two years ago, the health authorities made it obligatory for tobacco manufacturers to print an image of a sickly man living on an artificial ventilation machine, on packets of cigarettes.
But soon, the warning image became a funny public issue as the man in the picture sued the authorities for "tampering" with his features without his consent.
Last month, another controversy erupted when a new illustration was printed on tobacco products linking smoking to male impotency. . . .
The increase in the numbers of smokers is not limited to Egypt, however.
According to a recent study in Yemen, people there smoke around 6.4 billion cigarettes per year, i.e. 317.5 million packets. "The magnitude of tobacco use can be perceived when we imagine that if cigarettes used annually are arranged in one line, they would stretch for around 508,000 kilometres," said Ahmad Hussain Al Hada, an ex-executive of the Youngsters Welfare Fund, who conducted the study.
The numbers of smokers in Yemen are among the highest in the world
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