'RUSSIANS HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT CHAINS OF SMOKE'
Moscow, 22 October:
The Russian government
is preparing an anti-smoking law and has enlisted the prime minister and
badminton lover Dmitry Medvedev to support it, which he did in a video
appeal calling for people to kick the habit.
The legislation will be discussed in parliament by the end of October.
Medvedev stated that this was a very important bill for non-smokers as well. “For non-smokers this law cannot come soon enough. Some smokers call it an attempt to curtail their right to do whatever they want with their health. But I am sure that the bill serves the interests of our country’s residents,” he said.
Russia among leaders for smoking
As of today, the prime minister said, Russia has one of the highest levels of smoking in the world.
“Forty-four million of our citizens depend on daily doses of nicotine – just think about it, it’s a third of the country, including children! And we are the second largest [smokers] in the world after China.”
In 2011, Russians spent more than 600 billion rubles on cigarettes, the state secretary and deputy health minister, Sergei Velmyaikin, told RIA Novosti.
Medvedev said the market is divided between the four major foreign cigarette companies, all of which came to Russia in the early 1990s. “Unfortunately, then, in the 1990s, the state did not consider the risks of foreign tobacco investment in the Russian economy.”
Numbers rose over 20 years
He said the number of smoking women tripled in that period – from 7 to 22 percent – and the age of first-time smokers fell from 15 to 11.
“Currently two-thirds of Russian teenagers from 13 to 16 years old have smoked, and a third smokes regularly. Annually, in Russia, 400,000 pupils aged 10 to 13 try smoking, and almost a third are active smokers.”
He added that Russia loses almost 400,000 people a year to smoking, a number equivalent to the number of residents of Tver.
“So, every year a large city disappears from the map of the country due to tobacco use, and this is a long and painful death from cancer, emphysema, or a sudden one from heart attack or stroke,” the prime minister said.
Gradual ban
The prime minister explained that the anti-smoking bill provides for a complete ban on smoking in playgrounds, government buildings, schools, and universities – and from 2015, in cafes and restaurants as well.
The measures would be introduced gradually, and by Jan. 1, 2015, smoking would not be allowed in any public buildings. Taxes on tobacco would also be raised and advertising cut down.
The extra money from increased taxes on tobacco will be spent on healthcare, he said.
Not discrimination
Medvedev contradicted the idea that the bill is discriminatory against smokers, noting that “today, nearly 60 percent of adults and all children, including infants, are subjected to discrimination on the part of smokers: they are forced to inhale the poisonous cigarette smoke, even though they did not choose to be smokers.”
“I would like to emphasize one simple thing: the government or
the state is not at war with smokers, but we are against smoking,” he
stressed, adding that over 80 percent of Russians, including two-thirds
of regular smokers, support the fight against smoking.
“Let’s free our country from tobacco,” he concluded.
LINKS:
http://indrus.in/articles/2012/10/21/pm_calls_for_nationwide_smoking_ban_18521.html
Moscow, 22 October:
The Russian government
is preparing an anti-smoking law and has enlisted the prime minister and
badminton lover Dmitry Medvedev to support it, which he did in a video
appeal calling for people to kick the habit.The legislation will be discussed in parliament by the end of October.
Medvedev stated that this was a very important bill for non-smokers as well. “For non-smokers this law cannot come soon enough. Some smokers call it an attempt to curtail their right to do whatever they want with their health. But I am sure that the bill serves the interests of our country’s residents,” he said.
Russia among leaders for smoking
As of today, the prime minister said, Russia has one of the highest levels of smoking in the world.
“Forty-four million of our citizens depend on daily doses of nicotine – just think about it, it’s a third of the country, including children! And we are the second largest [smokers] in the world after China.”
In 2011, Russians spent more than 600 billion rubles on cigarettes, the state secretary and deputy health minister, Sergei Velmyaikin, told RIA Novosti.
Medvedev said the market is divided between the four major foreign cigarette companies, all of which came to Russia in the early 1990s. “Unfortunately, then, in the 1990s, the state did not consider the risks of foreign tobacco investment in the Russian economy.”
Numbers rose over 20 years
He said the number of smoking women tripled in that period – from 7 to 22 percent – and the age of first-time smokers fell from 15 to 11.
“Currently two-thirds of Russian teenagers from 13 to 16 years old have smoked, and a third smokes regularly. Annually, in Russia, 400,000 pupils aged 10 to 13 try smoking, and almost a third are active smokers.”
He added that Russia loses almost 400,000 people a year to smoking, a number equivalent to the number of residents of Tver.
“So, every year a large city disappears from the map of the country due to tobacco use, and this is a long and painful death from cancer, emphysema, or a sudden one from heart attack or stroke,” the prime minister said.
Gradual ban
The prime minister explained that the anti-smoking bill provides for a complete ban on smoking in playgrounds, government buildings, schools, and universities – and from 2015, in cafes and restaurants as well.
The measures would be introduced gradually, and by Jan. 1, 2015, smoking would not be allowed in any public buildings. Taxes on tobacco would also be raised and advertising cut down.
The extra money from increased taxes on tobacco will be spent on healthcare, he said.
Not discrimination
Medvedev contradicted the idea that the bill is discriminatory against smokers, noting that “today, nearly 60 percent of adults and all children, including infants, are subjected to discrimination on the part of smokers: they are forced to inhale the poisonous cigarette smoke, even though they did not choose to be smokers.”
“Let’s free our country from tobacco,” he concluded.
LINKS:
http://indrus.in/articles/2012/10/21/pm_calls_for_nationwide_smoking_ban_18521.html
