Air pollution is so bad in Cairo that living in the sprawling city of 18 million residents is said to be akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. According to the World Health Organisation, the average Cairene ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day.
A friend of mine trained for a marathon here (against my advice) and her doctor told her that the harm she was doing to herself by exercising outdoors might actually outweigh the benefits of the exercise itself.
What was that science fiction movie from the '80s (I think) where smog was so bad that people were required to smoke a certain number of cigarettes a day because it was healthier than breathing the air? It feels sort of like that here sometimes.
