Egyptians Start Smoking Before Puberty

In a shocking announcement, Egypt's Minister of Social Solidarity, Ghada Wali, made a disturbing statement which claims that the starting age of smokers in Egypt has dropped down to as young as 10-years old, Al-Ahram's Arabic news website reported today..

Wali said during the Anti-Addiction Conference that the amount of the Egyptian population smoking cigarettes has gone up by 5% since 2009 to a total of 24% in 2013. Furthermore, the minister claims that more than 60% of smokers are young adults and on average spend nearly 200LE per month for their nicotine. This figure is expected to increase, as the prices of cigarettes increased by 22& this week, after a presidential decree declared a raise on sales tax for both local and imported tobacco.

Admittedly, we had no idea that Social Solidarity had a minister in the Egyptian government, but are thankful that someone is collecting data, as Egypt has always had problem with both accepting official stats and smoking cigarettes.