Ministry of Health Initiates Anti-Smoking Law

Ministry of Health of Belarus took the initiative to create a single regulatory act governing the social relations in the field of population protection from the consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. The Council of Ministers, where the Ministry of Health applied to, approved the initiative. The draft document will be developed in 2013.

According to the head of the Department of Public Health National Center of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health, Volha Bartman, the development of the new law will take into account the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the experience of other countries, including partners in the Customs Union, reported “Belarusian News”.

For example, in Kazakhstan, protection of the public from the harm of smoking is fixed by the Code on Health. Russia is also planning to fix the anti-smoking measures at the legislative level — currently there is a public discussion of the federal law On Protection of Public Health from the Effects of Tobacco Consumption.

As Volha Bartman explained, the new bill, in particular, is expected to determine the possible ban on smoking in cafes, restaurants and other catering facilities. So far there’s no single ban on smoking in Belarus and the heads of different facilities establish self-set rules of smoking.

At the moment, smoking is prohibited at the legislative level in Belarus only in health care, culture, education and sports facilities, as well as at the objects of trade and consumer services. In addition, it is forbidden to smoke inside government bodies, local executive and administrative bodies, as well as train stations, airports and subways.

As it was previously reported, Ministry of Health study shows that nearly half of Belarusians (48%) believe that the authorities should tighten measures to combat smoking. The most effective measures in this struggle are considered to be a smoking ban in public places as well as ban on tobacco advertising in Belarus.

According to the Ministry of Health, over the past 10 years, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 41.6% to 30.6% in Belarus. Men give up their addiction to cigarettes more actively than women. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Health points out to a fairly wide prevalence of passive smoking among Belarusians. Most often, according to the research, people are faced with passive smoking at public transport stops (40%), places of work and study (39%) and at a party (32.2%).

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