80% of Ministers Do Not Smoke: Thorosyan on Anti-Tobacco Bill

The Minister of Health of Armenia, Arsen Thorosyan, addressed the discussions surrounding the bill on "Reducing and Preventing Harm to Health from the Use of Tobacco Products and Their Substitutes" on his Facebook page, providing certain clarifications.

"There is not a single country in the world where taxes collected from tobacco sales exceed the damage it causes, expressed in monetary terms. There simply isn’t such a country. I want to emphasize this specifically for my colleagues in the National Assembly's Economic Commission, as the economic commission has been appointed as the primary commission for this legislation," he wrote.

The minister noted that the uproar surrounding such laws, suggesting that the country would suffer economic losses or experience an economic apocalypse, is provoked or financed by the tobacco industry. In Armenia, these are primarily the tobacco importers.

"They commission various fake studies, pay media outlets to publish articles praising tobacco or discrediting the law and its authors. Often, these are economically oriented media outlets which make their 'predictions' seem more credible," the minister emphasized.

Thorosyan is convinced that the tobacco industry is leaving no effort spared in trying to blackmail, or through other 'interesting,' supposedly investment proposals, persuade governments or parliaments in countries to abstain from adopting anti-tobacco laws aimed at safeguarding the health of their populations. He expressed hope that the Armenian government and National Assembly would remain free from such influences and manipulations.

Arsen Thorosyan promised to further address the uproar and its real motivations. Notably, the new government surpasses all previous administrations in terms of non-smokers, with 80% of ministers not smoking, and there are no smokers among the 10 regional governors.

The bill under consideration has been discussed for about 1.5 years, dating back to the time of Karen Karapetyan, and has received negative feedback among smokers.