The World No-Tobacco Day was neglected by Russian smokers

Published on June 5, 2008 3:38 AM

The World No-Tobacco Day took place on May 31. This event was supported by all the states, which have banned smoking. Even though the Russian Government also approved the new law, Russian smokers ignored this day.

Russian smokers reported that they had no plans to kick the habit even for a day.

Smoking has grown to catastrophic proportions in Russia. Today, Russians smoke twice as many cigarettes as they did 10 years ago. Now Russia can be put among the world’s heaviest smokers, far ahead of India. Tobacco consumption per capita is close to 2,800 cigarettes. Regular smokers account 63% of men and 27% of women.

Every year 300,000 people die of smoking-related causes in Russia.

After years of inaction the government has finally braced itself to fight the tobacco epidemic. The Russian Parliament now plans to ban cigarette advertising, smoking in public places and restrict sale of cigarettes.

The dramatic increase in smoking began after the break-up of the Soviet Union, when the former President, Boris Yeltsin, privatized the tobacco industry and opened the doors for transnational tobacco giants such as Philip Morris, British-American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco.

Statistics show that today children try smoking at the age of 10 and by the time they reach 17 two-thirds become hard smokers. The number of female smokers has grown more than five-fold since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Male smokers in the age group of 40 to 60 have recently declined, not because they smoke less, but because they die early.

According to Nikolai Gerasimenko, the deputy head of the Russian Parliament’s Health Committee, cigarettes in Russia are the cheapest in the world because of low excise taxes. Russia is the only country in the world to have fixed the upper price ceiling for cigarettes, added Mr. Gerasimenko.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has set the task of raising the average life expectancy in Russia from 65.5 years to 75 years over the next 10 years, and specifically called for combating smoking.