25.04.09

Nikolai Gerasimenko, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Healthcare, said the decision had not been lobbied by tobacco companies.

It's a legal norm: if an existing law is altered by more than a quarter, it is better to write a new one, he explained.

The Duma decided to draft a new law as a follow-up to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It will be presented in the lower house of parliament on April 16.

About 400,000 people die from smoking and 700,000 from alcohol abuse in Russia annually, Gerasimenko said earlier.

He said the Duma would amend the federal law "On Tobacco Smoking" in order to increase health warnings on cigarette packs to 50 percent of their display area and introduce a total ban on tobacco advertising.

"The right to decide which bar or restaurant should allow smoking will be given to municipalities," he said.

Another measure designed to reduce the number of smokers in Russia is to increase excises. "Experience shows that a 10-percent increase in cigarette excises reduces the number of smokers by 3 percent," Gerasimenko said. Currently, 30 percent of the Russian population smoke.

Russia's chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko spoke flatly against a return of tobacco and beer advertisements to mass media.

"All this talk about a return of tobacco and beer advertising is not an indicator of the economy, but an indicator of responsibility of those who propose this," he said.

He does not share the view, expressed by some politicians, that such return would benefit the economy.

"Europe is also living through a financial crisis, but no one there is suggesting returning tobacco and beer advertisements because that would be the end of one's political and personal career," Onishchenko said.

The chief sanitary inspector spoke of the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol consumption. He regretted that the technical regulation for tobacco products recently approved by the State Duma was not consistent with international standards and failed to meet safety requirements in respect to people's health.

Onishchenko is confident that the current version of the technical regulation was adopted by the Duma because of pressure from the tobacco lobby.

"They showed who the master is. They gnawed into the senescent body of Russian healthcare. It's a lesson for us, medics, that we have not learnt to snarl back," he said.

Onishchenko specifically disagrees with some of the provisions. He believes that ostensibly harmless inscription "Smoking ages skin" needs to be replaced with a stronger health warning.

"There should be a picture showing cross-section of the lungs of a smoker who has died from ling cancer," he said.

The technical regulation for tobacco products adopted by the Duma in December brings the federal law "On the Limitation of Tobacco Smoking" in line with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of 2003 in terms of preventing the spread of smoking.

The document seeks to increase governmental control and supervision over compliance by tobacco producers with tobacco product requirements, improve public awareness of tobacco hazards, reduce the negative effects of tobacco on smokers, and prevent the adverse impact of passive smoking on non-smokers.

The law defines tobacco products as "products that are made, in full or in part, of tobacco leaves as prime material prepared in such a way as to be fit for smoking, sucking, chewing or sniffing".

The technical regulation calls for a gradual reduction of hazardous substances in tobacco products: for filter cigarettes: 10 milligrams of tar, 1 milligram of nicotine (current levels are 14 and 1.2 milligrams); and for non-filter cigarettes: 13 milligrams of tar and 1.1 milligrams of nicotine (current levels are 16 and 1.3 milligrams). These requirements will apply three years after the enactment of the law. Earlier, a five-year transitional period was planned, but it was reduced on the initiative of the pro-presidential United Russia party.

The document also says that every pack of cigarettes will have to bear the main health warning in a black frame, reading "Smoking kills". In addition, additional health warnings may be placed on a pack, such as "Smoking causes infarctions and insults", "Protect children from tobacco smoke" or "Consult your doctor in order to quit smoking".

The regulation states that a health warning should be made in "bold, clear and easily readable uppercase letters of the biggest possible size in black on white". The main health warning may not be less than 30 percent of the principal display area, and an additional health warning, not less than 50 percent.

The law requires tobacco producers and importers to provide information about the ingredients used in their products.

The law will become effective a year after its official publication. It contains transitional provisions regulating a gradual introduction of stricter requirements to the amount of hazardous substances in tobacco products and the size of health warnings on them.

One of the authors of the law, deputy head of the United Russia faction Tatyana Yakovleva said, "There are more than half of such volunteer self-killers who poison themselves and the people around them with tobacco smoke in our country".

The number of smokers continues to grow as more women and children take to smoking. Currently, the average age when a person starts smoking in Russia is 11 years. Mortality among Russian smokers is three times higher than abroad due to high tar and nicotine contents.

Currently, the scale of tobacco smoking and the spread of tobacco-related diseases in Russia continue to grow. Despite the annual decrease in the population, cigarette consumption grows every year. From 2000 to 2005 cigarette consumption increased by 30 percent from 287 billion in 2000 to 375 billion in 2005. This causes serious damage to the health of the population since tobacco consumption is one of the main factors leading to the development of cardiovascular, bronchopulmonary and gastrointestinal diseases. For example, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the main cause of which is smoking, has risen in the structure of mortality in Russia over the past five years from 12th to 4th place. Lung cancer, which is caused by smoking in 90 percent of cases, affects about 50,000 men annually.

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Source: Itar-Tass