The RA Government and especially the Ministry of Justice of the RA elaborated a draft of a new Anti-Tobacco law which was sent to the National Assembly of the RA in 2011.
Today is International Anti-Tobacco Day. From the point of view of specialists, in our country the rights of non smokers are not protected. During the conversation with iravaban.net the head of “Anti-Tobacco” Project of health center of the American University of Armenia, specialist in the area of the fight against smoking, Narine Movsisyan mentioned that there are many omissions in the RA law on “The Limitations of distribution, consumption and use of tobacco”.
According to the coordinator of public organization “Armenia without tobacco”, specialist of public health, Arusyak Harutyunyan, the use of tobacco, especially among men, is a real challenge for public health. Narine Minasyan said that Armenia had joined The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is an obligatory convention to protect people from the smoke of tobacco.
Referring to electronic cigarettes, the specialist mentioned that those cigarettes don’t contain resin but nicotine which means that this is not a way of getting rid of dependency.
According to Narine Movsisyan, it is difficult to talk about the matter of tobacco since tobacco industry is a strong business and public health has strength, which is the strength of truth and public interest.
Nune Hovsepyan