HEALTH-EGYPT: Anti-Tobacco Moves Going Up in Smoke

By Cam McGrath Reprint | | Print |

Cam McGrath

CAIRO, Aug 6 2002 (IPS) - The giant Eastern Tobacco Company has announced it will raise the price of its cigarette brands with the exception of the largest selling among them, Cleopatra. As health experts see it, the cigarette that is doing the most damage will continue to do so.

Cleopatra accounts for about 60 per cent of the revenues for the Eastern Tobacco Company (ETC). But it will continue to be priced at 35 cents a pack. The price has been steady for ten years; when inflation is factored in, it has declined.

“The price of Cleopatra will not be raised because it is the number one brand in Egypt,” ETC spokesman Abdo Haddad told IPS. “The policy is to keep strategic commodities stable, otherwise the people will suffer.”

The price of other brands has been raised 5 cents a pack. The increase seeks to check declining profits. The Egyptian pound fell 15 per cent against the dollar last year. About 90 per cent of the ETC’s tobacco and packaging is imported, due in part to Egypt’s long-standing ban on tobacco cultivation.

Government figures show that an estimated 13 million people smoked 85 billion cigarettes last year, spending about 1.1 billion dollars on them. Egypt has a population of about 66 million.

By unofficial estimates there could be 20 million smokers in Egypt, a million of them below age 15. While the number of smokers in developed countries is decreasing, in Egypt the number is climbing 8 per cent a year.

There is money in this. The ETC which has a monopoly on local production and is the largest cigarette manufacturer in the Middle East, contributed 760 million dollars to the treasury last year.

“The more people smoke, the more money the government makes,” says 22-year-old Ashraf El-Sayed, a chain-smoking university student. “I doubt the government really wants people to quit. It just wants to make us think it does.”

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report says that 90 per cent of lung cancer cases in Egypt are smoking related. In 1992 lung and throat cancer accounted for 704 deaths per 100,000 males, and 287 deaths per 100,000 females.

The government made some moves against smoking when it ordered a ban on tobacco advertisements on radio and television in 1977. In September 1981 legislation was passed requiring cigarette packets to carry a health warning and display tar and nicotine content.

The Ministry of Health has now launched a campaign to deter children from smoking. “Smoking when young leads to addiction when old”, a radio and television advertisement warns.

“We have a strong smoking control programme,” says Dr Sami Ahmed who has directed the ministry’s efforts against smoking for four years. “Smoking is forbidden in hospitals, schools, cinemas and on all public transport.”

In June the People’s Assembly (parliament) approved a new tobacco law that forbids sale of tobacco to youth under 18 years. The new law bans all forms of tobacco advertising. But a proposal for a 10 per cent hike in taxes on cigarettes was rejected.

“Bread winners who smoke will not stop buying cigarettes at higher prices, and this will cut into their families’ budgets,” says Ahmed Ezz, chairman of the parliamentary committee that reviewed the draft law.

WHO officials disagree. “Increasing the price of tobacco products remains one of the most effective methods of curbing the consumption of tobacco products and thereby reducing the global deaths caused by tobacco,” says a WHO report released in February.

“Higher prices may assist non-users in continuing to keep away from tobacco and thus avoid addiction,” the report says. “It can also induce current smokers to consume less tobacco or even persuade them to quit, or prevent ex-users from starting again.”

WHO recently launched a media campaign using religion to deter smokers. About 80,000 posters went up around Egypt mentioning a fatwa (religious ruling) by a respected Islamic authority declaring smoking sinful.

Despite these moves by the government, analysts see obvious reasons behind keeping cigarette prices among the lowest in the world. “It’s a social thing,” says economist Magdy Sobhy. “The government is afraid the people will riot.”

The removal of subsidies on basic foodstuffs had led to nation-wide riots in 1977. The government has since been hesitant to raise the price of “strategic commodities” such as wheat, sugar and tobacco. “If you are going to raise prices, you will choose things that people don’t notice as much,” says Sobhy.