YEREVAN (RFE/RL) – On Thursday—as part of a new strategy to curb tobacco use—the Armenian government announced plans to restrict smoking in public places and raise cigarette prices.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan’s cabinet approved the program, which aims to reduce the large number of smokers in the country by at least 1.5 percent annually for the next three years.
According to estimates from Armenia’s Ministry of Health, over 25 percent of adult Armenians smoke on a daily basis. The smoking rate is especially high among men at 55 percent.
Health Minister Levon Altunyan told reporters that the anti-tobacco strategy outlines wide-ranging measures meant to cut these numbers. He said the authorities will “toughen” rules for smoking in offices, restaurants, cafes and bars, raise taxes levied from cigarettes and ban all forms of tobacco advertising. Altunyan would not say whether this will lead to a blanket ban on smoking in public areas. He said the government will clarify that in a package of bills that will be sent to the Armenian parliament this fall.
The Ministry of Health recommended such a ban when it announced the impending launch of the anti-tobacco drive in late May. The ministry also called for heavy fines for those businesses that would fail to enforce it.
Altunyan insisted that Armenian companies manufacturing and importing cigarettes have not lobbied the government to water down the planned measures.
“We haven’t asked for their opinion either,” Altunyan added.
Arsen Torosyan, a doctor and anti-smoking campaigner, cautiously welcomed the government plans.
“I hope that at least part of what has been declared will be implemented—cigarette prices will be raised, smoking will be completely banned in public places and tobacco advertising will be banned in full,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Azatutyun.am. “This cannot fail to cut the number of smokers because these methods have been successfully used all over the world.”
“The key thing here is political will,” Torosyan stressed, pointing to the failure of a five-year anti-tobacco program adopted by the authorities in 2010.
That program was supposed to reduce tobacco consumption, which is blamed by medics for the high incidence of lung cancer in Armenia. Government data shows that the proportion of heavy smokers in the population actually increased from 23 percent in 2012 to 26 percent in 2016.
An Armenian law that came into force in 2005 banned smoking in hospitals, cultural and educational institutions and public buses. Additional restrictions introduced a year later required other entities—including bars and restaurants—to allow smoking only in special secluded areas. However, with no legal sanctions put in place against violations, those measures proved largely ineffective.
Armenians in the first world don’t even follow these laws so how is it that it’s going to be enforced in the third world?
“An Armenian law that came into force in 2005 banned smoking in hospitals, cultural and educational institutions and public buses.”
So you me to tell me that it was okay to smoke in a hospital or public bus up until 2005?? This has to be a bad joke!
“However, with no legal sanctions put in place against violations, those measures proved largely ineffective.”
So they still smoke in hospitals and on public buses??
Good news, for non smokers, who are victims of 2-nd hand smoke!
Good job.
The best news from Armenia this year if its true
Great news, if enforced finally. Apparently we have laws and restrictions but it’s still impossible to breathe freely anywhere. So “in bars and restaurants allowed smoking only in designated areas” is a law? What means restriction and How can it be enforced?