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Russia will join protocol for elimination of illicit tobacco trade — health minister

The international Protocol will promote the protection of people worldwide from the risks tobacco poses to health, World Health Organization documents say

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Russia will join the international protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said at the opening ceremony of the sixth conference of the parties to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Moscow on Monday.

“I must say that the Russian government has made a decision our country will join the protocol for the elimination of illicit tobacco trade. The Health Ministry has drafted a corresponding federal law,” Skvortsova said.

The protocol for the elimination of illicit tobacco trade was adopted at the fifth conference of the WHO FCTC parties in Seoul on November 12, 2012. This is the first protocol to the WHO FCTC having the status of an international treaty.

The parties to the treaty assume the responsibility to create a global system of tracking the supply chains to ease the scale and, eventually, eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products.

The Protocol will promote the protection of people worldwide from the risks tobacco poses to health, WHO FCTC documents say.

“The tobacco epidemic poses one of the most significant threats to people’s health the world has ever encountered. It claims about six million lives a year. Every six seconds at least one person dies of tobacco (one in ten adult deaths).

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