Armenia’s Cabinet approves anti-smoking strategy
The Armenian Government approved at a session on Thursday the anti-smoking strategy and the 2017-2020 action plan to that end.
Armenia’s Minister of Health Levon Altunyan noted that the control plan aims at taking measures to drive down tobacco use in the country, as well as to protect people from the secondhand tobacco smoke exposure and to cut down the morbidity rates of non-communicable diseases.
According to the minister, the anti-smoking measures are expected to give the following results: smoking rates reduction by 1.5-2% annually, relative reduction of the current tobacco use prevalence among men aged 15 and above to 10%, decrease in secondhand smoke health effects, which will lead to a 5% reduction in death cases caused by cardiovascular system diseases, malignant neoplasms, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and diabetes.