[Intl-tobacco] 270,000 PEOPLE DIE OF TOBACCO SMOKING IN RUSSIA EVERY YEAR

[robert weissman]

Russian News and Information Agency Novosti

2004-11-18

270,000 PEOPLE DIE OF TOBACCO SMOKING IN RUSSIA EVERY YEAR

MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - About 270,000 people die in Russia
of tobacco smoking every year, Gennady Ivanov, chief expert at the
Russian Federal Service on Protection of Consumers' Rights, said at a
press conference on Russia's signing of the anti-smoking convention of
the World Health Organization. It is timed to coincide with the World
No-Tobacco Day.

According to WHO data, 5 million people annually die of tobacco smoking
in the world. Mr. Ivanov said that 70% of Russian men and 30% of Russian
women are tobacco smokers. "The number of smokers among teenagers and
women keeps growing," he noted.

According to the information of the preventive medicine center of the
Russian Health and Social Development Ministry, 30.5 million men over 20
and 14 million women of this age are smokers in Russia. Life expectancy
in Russia is 10-15 years lower than in developed countries.

"Life expectancy of Russian men is 59.4 years, however, if they did not
smoke it would be 63 years," the center's representative noted.

State Duma deputy Boris Kibirev believes that "the key anti-smoking task
is not to make adults quit smoking but to prevent young people from
becoming smokers."