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The Ministry of Health in Cairo, Egypt has determined that a decision made by its Technical Committee of Drugs in 2011 means that electronic cigarettes should be completely banned in the country. Presumably, the ministry’s Central Administration Department of Pharmaceutical Affairs determined that because their safety has yet to be proven, they are not legally marketable goods.

There’s not a lot of information available at the moment. A brief article ran in the Cairo Post explaining the decision.

It seems that the Ministry of Health is making the argument that due to other rules, e-cigs are simply banned. That is, that there is no need to propose a ban and get it passed… it simply is already the case. They’re basing this decision on a decision made in 2011 that potentially toxic or harmful products cannot be imported or traded in the Egyptian market.

It’s surprising then that smoking in Egypt is not only legal, but extremely prevalent — with roughly 20 percent of the nation using tobacco products. And those that do smoke there smoke quite a lot. Egypt is ranked as one of the top ten per capita consumers of tobacco in the world.

Whether this decision will actually stand up to public, political, and legal scrutiny will yet be seen. While the Ministry of Health is attempting to argue that e-cigs are simply banned as a byproduct of a previously passed and supported measure, actually enacting such measures can be a bit weedy.

According to officials, the decision to ban e-cigs came about because there was no study that proves the safety of the e-cigarettes. I guess they just happened to miss any of the more than 100 studies into the harm of e-cigs that show them to be not very harmful at all. It will be interesting to see if this decision actually stands and manages to get enforced.