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The World Health Organization (WHO) designated 31 May of each year as the annual World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). The theme of WNTD 2018 is “Tobacco and heart disease”.

“This das has an important message for Armenia due to the alarming smoking statistics,” Armenian Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said at today’s news conference dedicated to the World No Tobacco Day.

He noted Armenia has adopted an anti-smoking strategy which has been approved by the government, however the steps taken so far are not enough to tackle the issue in the country. According to him the 2010-2015 anti-smoking project eyed a decrease of 1.2-2 percent in number of smokers across the country every year. However, the 2017 statistics show that the number of smokers has not dropped, moreover, the cigarette use has increased among both men and women.

The minister stressed the need for decisive measures and political will to deal with the high figures of tobacco consumption in the country. He attached special importance to adopting legal acts that would ban smoking in public places.

Minister Torosyan spoke in favour of the adoption of the Health Ministry-drafted bill to reduce and prevent the negative effects of tobacco products use in the country, at the same time stressing the need to make some changes in the bill regarding the fines on those who might fail to comply with the measure.

He also pointed to the issues regarding the tobacco advertising, its price policy and raising the public awareness. 

According to the statistics, some 53,4 percent of Armenian men and 2,3 percent of women above 15 years of age are smokers.

Arsen Torosyan noted the cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, adding some 12% of heart diseases develop due to smoking or exposure to the second-hand smoke.

“It is inadmissible to ignore this disturbing fact. It needs to be stopped. The statistics are warning against the upward trend of diseases caused by smoking. Most of the cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer types, including some 80-85% of lung cancer are caused by long-term smoking. Today we can record that the anti-smoking programs still remain on paper,” he said.