Armenia Looks to Ban Smoking in Public Places

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Armenia’s Health Minister Levon Altunyan told reporters on May 31 that he had received instructions from the country’s leadership to declare a war on tobacco and to reduce the number of smokers in Armenia by 30-40 percent.

An Armenian advertisement discouraging smoking

According to a number of Armenia-based news outlets, Altunyan said that smoking will be banned in public spaces, including restaurants and bars, with no separate closed rooms for smokers. Taxes on tobacco products will be raised as well, according to the Minister.

Altunyan added that after the approval of the program, legislative work will begin in the government in the near future and amendments will be made in Nov. 2017.

During the press conference, which took place at the United Nations Yerevan Office on World No Tobacco Day, Alexander Bazarchyan, the director of the National Healthcare Institute, said that a new program for the fight against tobacco has been developed and has submitted to the government. Its main components are legislative changes, the improvement of healthcare services, better informing citizens, and international cooperation.

According to Bazarchyan, the changes would also prohibit advertising tobacco products and would force companies to include photographs on their warning labels.

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Excellent idea! What took them so long?Cigarets are killers, and we can’t afford to lose even one single Armenian to tobacco related illnesses

  2. The work towards Smoke-Free Armenia started yet in 1995, I personally was an author of tobacco control initiatives at AUA. I dont believe that there will be any ban on smoking in Armenian public places, because of the ignorance of same current leadership of the country and their behavioral pattern which is disgusting in many aspects.
    Today’s statement is just a new false promise to get more funding from international structures to support their own corrupted lives.
    I don’t trust them.

  3. I am 52 yearsrs young Armenian gentleman ,never smoked in my life,regular visitor to my hyrenik,what I see in streets
    Makes me cry,nearly all men smoke.they smell they look walking dead,I can see if we carry on this road, there will be no future for my country,this is national security , cigrets are so cheap,handful of evil men make fortune from this tobacco ,they are the leadership.who are they kidding.

  4. I visited Armenia, in 1989 (during the Karabakh War), when Armenia was still a Soviet Republic. My first impression was bittersweet, and tainted by piles of cigarette butts that littered the airport, in Yerevan. This smoking problem predated the collapse of the USSR.

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