© World Health Organization 2008

“Review of tobacco industry activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region” is a series of reports on the tactics and plans of the tobacco industry to undermine tobacco control efforts in the Region. The industry’s activities have been widely documented by WHO and its partners, and have also been exposed following the release of the ‘tobacco industry documents’, which present compelling arguments and evidence that the unethical behaviour of the tobacco industry has extended to all levels of society across the Region.

This report reveals the industry’s direct and indirect methods to undermine tobacco control in markets unbound by strict anti-smoking legislation, and where the states themselves are mega producers of tobacco, and own national tobacco companies. Egypt and North Africa remains an attractive region for international tobacco companies.