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's Eastern Tobacco EAST.CA said on Monday it had raised the price of a packet of some types of cigarettes by 0.25 Egyptian pounds ($0.05). It said in a statement the prices for Cleopatra Box, New Cleopatra Lites, Lite, Boston, Capitol, Super Star, Belmont and Golden King would rise.
The new prices took effect on Sept. 1. It
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Instead of deterring smokers, the new set of warning pictures printed on cigarette packs are driving up the sales of metal cigarette boxes, Ibrahim El Embaby, head of the Tobacco Industry Division of the Industries Union, told local press.
According to the new tobacco law, which was approved by the People’s Assembly (PA) last June, a detailed health warning has to cover 50 percent of the pack on both sides. In addition to warning labels, cigarette packs now feature pictures explaining the side effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, and a limp cigarette in reference to impotence, among others.
In addition, all forms of tobacco advertising are prohibited, and a 10 percent increase is added to the price of cigarettes. . . .
numbers show that the law is ineffective.
“For the manufacturers, pictures and warning labels on packs are nothing but a routine procedure and will not make their consumer quit smoking because it’s the ingredients of the cigarettes, like nicotine, which are addictive,” said Mahmoud Aoshb, a economics expert at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
“The Ministry of Health has to step in with intensive awareness campaigns in order to get Egyptians to quit smoking,” he added.
Imagine an enemy that kills one person every six seconds with non stop-killing. He is also responsible for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide, killing 5.4 million people a year! You may see his shadow at home, work, and even on the street you walk in. What do you think you could do to stop this enemy who threatens every one you love?
This is the question that motivated Nesreen Dabos from Egypt, to start a campaign against smoking tobacco which is described by (WHO) as one of the greatest emerging health disasters in human history. Dabous and her team named their campaign "Hayah bela tadkhen" or "Life Without Smoking" expressing their hope for a tobacco-free world.
The Beginning
"It was 3 years ago, when one of my relatives died from angina pectoris because he was a heavy smoker. . . .
"Hyah team" launched "Beaches Without Smoking" campaign this week. You will find the campaign's booth in Alexandria's beaches. They are holding competitions and matches among smokers beside their basic activities. It is your rare chance to enjoy your summer while challenging yourself to stop this bad habit.
Do you know!
A huge proportion of people do not realize how smoking is ruinous.
This databook is a detailed information resource covering all the key data points on Tobacco in Egypt. It includes comprehensive value volume segmentation and market share data. The databook supplies actual data to 2006 and full forecasts to 2011.
Alexandria City Centre, Egypt's landmarkshopping destination, celebrated the World Health Organisation's 'World No Tobacco Day' with a campaign aimed to educate smokers and non-smokers alike about the dangerous effects of smoking.
The initiative saw Alexandria City Centre tie up with two local charities, Future Protectors and Good Companions, to set up a kiosk at the Centre with 30 volunteers distributing information of the ill effects of smoking and giving away mugs to visitors.
The volunteer staff along with the house keeping and security at the Centre supported the efforts by wearing a 'World No Tobacco Day' t-shirt to increase awareness.
'A ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship', this is WHO's call to world governments on the eve of World No Tobacco Day, 31 May.
The initiative calls for cooperation with WHO to protect the world’s 1.8 billion young of smoking hazards. "The tobacco industry employs predatory marketing strategies to get young people hooked to their addictive drug", said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.
Bettcher pointed out that the initiative of comprehensive advertising bans do work, reducing tobacco consumption by up to 16% in countries that have already taken this legislative step. "Half measures are not enough. We urge governments to impose a complete ban to break the tobacco marketing net," added Dr. Bettcher.
Starting Aug. 1, cigarette labels in Egypt will be required to carry images of the effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, and a limp cigarette symbolizing impotence.
It's a major step in Egypt's fledgling anti-smoking campaign and a dramatic change in a country where public discussion of smoking's health risks is nearly nonexistent.
"I would like to quit but I just can't. But when you see pictures like this, like that sick man, that has an effect -- it does encourage you to stop," said Osama Sabri Mohammed, . . .
"This one specifically will have an effect on Egyptians, since they are really concerned about that," he said, when shown the image of the limp cigarette. . . .
But the campaign faces a tough challenge among Egypt's die-hard smokers.
Egypt is one of the top 15 smoking countries in the world: Nearly 60 percent of all adult males in this country of 79 million people use tobacco in some form, compared to the United States where around 24 percent of men smoke cigarettes.
Egypt's Eastern Tobacco EAST.CA posted a 20.7 percent rise in nine-month net profit to 556.4 million Egyptian pounds ($103.9 million), the stock exchange said in a statement.
After a period of relative stability, cigarettes will now be sold at higher prices as part of the newly declared price hikes the government instituted to finance public sector wage increases.
The ubiquitous local Cleopatra brand will now sell for LE 3 up from LE 2.25. At the opposite end of the spectrum Marlboro brands have seen a LE 1.5 increase from LE 7.50 to LE 9.
Brands such as Rothmans and L&M have also seen an increase of at least one pound to reach LE 5.5.
Egyptians on Tuesday criticized fuel and cigarette price increases meant to fund a 30 percent hike in government salaries, worried the latest move by the authorities will once again leave them struggling to buy basic goods. . . .
Then, parliament late Monday passed a bill to muster up the US$3.6 billion needed for the salary raises. It increased taxes and cigarette prices . . .
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif promised the parliament bill won't burden the low income class, but on Cairo streets, many were feeling the pinch. The cost of cigarettes, a necessity for many in this country of heavy smokers, went up by about 10 percent.
Mustafa Fathy said he would drop his brand, Marlboro, which now costs 9 Egyptian pounds, or US$1.70, for the local Cleopatra, at 3.50 Egyptian pounds, or 60 cents a pack.
The Egyptian government has passed a bill to raise taxes and fuel prices only days after President Hosni Mubarak proposed a 30 percent salary increase for government employees. The move comes as Egypt is facing its worst social crisis over rising prices since Anwar El Sadat was president.
Under the proposal, gasoline prices will rise by as much as 50 percent. Natural gas will increase 58 percent. Smokers will be hit as well with a 10 percent rise in the cost of a pack of cigarettes.
Egypt's parliament approved steep increases in fuel and cigarette prices and vehicle licence fees on Monday to cover the costs of public-sector pay hikes that President Hosni Mubarak proposed last week. . . .
The price of foreign-brand cigarettes would rise by up to 20 percent, against about 10 percent for local brands.
The smoking of the traditional `shisha' water pipe is increasingly emerging as a significant health risk in Egypt, due to air-borne tuberculosis (TB) transmission from pipe sharing and uncontrolled, manual preparation of the pipe.
Rania Siam, professor of microbiology at the American University in Cairo (AUC), said the most important risk factor for TB infection was close household contact with a TB case, but she said water pipe smoking (WPS) and the sharing of the pipe with someone with pulmonary TB led to a great risk of TB transmission, especially among young adolescents.
"`Shisha' [smoking] is Egyptian culture, where people smoke tobacco and inhale directly from this device. If I smoke `shisha', some bacteria may reside in it.
Gaza is a small place, and news spread quickly Wednesday that the border fence was knocked down before dawn. Pretty soon, I was caught up in a traffic jam as people raced to Rafah in buses, cars, motorcycles. Some even rode bicycles and donkey carts. . . .
Cigarettes, which ordinarily sell for about $1.90 a pack in Gaza City, soared from an initial 80 cents on the Egyptian side of Rafah to $2.70 at their peak.
Authorities in tobacco-mad Egypt have begun slapping on-the-spot fines on people caught smoking at Cairo airport, the official MENA news agency reported on Tuesday.
It said that 100 people -- including passengers and airport workers -- had been fined between 50 and 100 Egyptian pounds (nine to 18 dollars, or six to 12 euros) since the campaign began three days ago.
Although smoking is already banned at Egyptian airports, hospitals and schools and in some other public places "No Smoking" signs are largely ignored.