513,000 child smokers in Egypt

Official Egyptian statistics forsee rise in the number of smokers, which could burden the national economy with enormous expenses due to the medical expenses cause by smoking related diseases.

The report states that there are about 6 million Egyptian smokers, of which 513,000 are kids under 10 years old. The average rate of male smokers over 13 year old is 31%, the highest in the world. The rate of female smokers is 3%. The heaviest smokers were found to be those who work in education as their rate is estimated at 45%, followed by doctors at 43%. As for the female smokers, the highest rate was among teachers at 7% followed by university students at 3%.