[Intl-tobacco] Russian parliament rejects anti-smoking bill (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Russian parliament rejects anti-smoking bill
Source: BBC Online, Wednesday, 5/24/00

The Russian parliament has rejected a bill aimed at cutting the health
risks of smoking.

Deputies in the lower house, the Duma, voted against a draft law to lower
the levels of nicotine, tar and other harmful substances in Russian-made
cigarettes.

Opponents of the bill said it would impose huge extra costs on tobacco
companies -- which would almost inevitably have forced up the price of
cigarettes.

An estimated sixty-five per cent of men and thirty per cent of women in
Russia smoke.

A BBC Russian Affairs analyst says that parliament did not want the
responsibility for depriving the millions of ordinary Russians who are on
the breadline of one of their few cheap pleasures -- albeit one which
could kill them.

>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service