SOCIETY
Final warning to Russian smokers
Baku, August 23 (AZERTAC). The Ministry of Health has developed a harsh draft anti-tobacco law that would ban smoking in public areas and remove smoking areas from institutions, hospitals and cafés. The draft will be submitted to the State Duma during the fall session.
It has been 11 years since the Russian authorities passed a law limiting smoking, four years since Russia ratified the anti-tobacco convention of the World Health Organization, and two years since Vladimir Putin signed the Governmental Concept for Restriction of Tobacco Consumption. Nevertheless, according to Dmitry Yanin, the head of the international Confederation of Consumer, Russia remains one of the heaviest smoking countries in the world. According to Yanin`s data, up to 60 percent of Russian men and 22 percent of women smoke, and the 85 percent of them began smoking before they turned 20.
“Russia is the second largest tobacco market after China, even despite the huge difference in their populations,” Yanin said. “So it`s no wonder that manufacturers so forcefully attack the new draft bill on tobacco consumption developed by the Ministry of Health.”
The draft bill is not really new: a year ago the document was put up for discussion at the official site of the agency, which was then called the Ministry of Public Health and Social Development. On May 20, 2012 the head of the newly formed Ministry of Health submitted the draft law to the government, but two days later the document was sent back for further development at the insistence of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture. These agencies believe that strict bans will have an adverse effect on tobacco manufacturers. Representatives of major market players, including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, have expressed concern about owners of small-scale retail outlets who could be banned from cigarette trade by the new law. There are about one million such outlets in Russia.