Will Armenia prohibit smoking in public places? New anti-smoking program sent to government

Smoking is an assessment of failure to succeed in life. If a person wants to be a successful businessmen, a successful parent, he must adhere to standards of success, Health Minister Levon Altunyan told reporters on May 31 (World No Tobacco Day).

He noted that, he had received an instruction from the country's top political leadership to declare war to tobacco. The task is to reduce the number of smokers in the country by 30-40%.

Alexander Bazarchyan, director of the National Healthcare Institute, explained that a new program for the fight against tobacco has been developed, and has been submitted to the government. Its main components are legislative changes, improvement of healthcare services, informing and international cooperation.

According to him, tough legislative changes are planned in order to ban smoking in public places as well as prohibit advertising, including shops.

As the minister added, there will be no separate closed rooms for smokers, since the approach is that one should not smoke at all. The excise tax on tobacco will be raised as well.

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

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