PORT SAID - Leading a big march with banners reading "Smoking - a deadly danger", "Preventing smoking is a responsibility of all", "Fight smoking to save lives", the Governor of the coastal city of Port Said has declared the town as smoking free. "It's horrible that 40 per cent of young Egyptians are smoking. They are the next generation of adults. We will tell smokers first about the dangers of smoking and later fine them," Governor Moustafa Abdel-Latif told a ceremony marking the event on Friday "From today (Sunday), there will be a smoking ban in governmental buildings," he declared. Egypt is a nation of smokers. Traditional shishas (water pipes) are common in many coffee shops, and persuading Egyptians to quit will be a challenge, according to experts. It is common to see people everywhere puffing on cigarettes, in offices, shops and even in hospitals. Port Said, around 220km, northeast of Cairo, is the second city in Egypt to ban smoking after the coastal city of Alexandria did so six months ago. The local authorities plan to enforce a code that is usually ignored, prohibiting smoking at governmental buildings. Two years ago, the Government got serious about health risks, launching a new campaign of stark visual warnings about tobacco dangers. Cigarette packs carry drastic images with the effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child and a limp cigarette symbolising impotence. It's a major step in Egypt's fledgling anti-smoking campaign and a dramatic change in a country where public discussion of health risks is nearly nonexistent, add experts. "We need everybody, especially governmental institutions, to help us fight smoking," said Dr Nasr El-Sayed the under secretary of the Ministry of Health's Preventive Affairs. He explained that around 70 per cent of female employees complained about their male colleagues smoking in the office. "We will endorse the Port Said initiative in other governorates. The Upper Egyptian City of Luxor will be the next," Dr el-Sayed added.
