Ukraine is far from being a smoke-free country, but progress is being made to kick the habit that contributes to 85,000 premature deaths each year in the nation.
The World Health Organization reported this month that smoking in Ukraine has dramatically decreased. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey, or GATS, reported that the national rate of tobacco use has dropped nearly 20 percent, from 28.4 percent in 2010 to 22.8 percent in 2017.
Exposure to secondhand smoke has decreased even more dramatically–by 57 percent in the workplace and by close to 50 percent in households. However, nearly a quarter of Ukrainians are still exposed to secondhand smoke in restaurants and cafes, despite a ban on smoking public places for the last five years.
The progress in combatting the world’s leading cause of preventable death shows Ukraine’s lawmakers are following up on commitments made as part of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, ratified by Ukraine on June 6, 2006.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., said that, since 2010, Ukraine has increased tobacco taxes, expanded smoke-free places, introduced large, graphic health warnings on tobacco packs and restricted tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
However, “despite these impressive declines, tobacco use is still on track to claim 85,000 lives in Ukraine each year,” noted Joshua Abrams, the organization’s director of Eurasia programs. “And cigarettes remain highly affordable, costing only 17.5 hryvnia for a 20-stick pack, well below $1.”
Oksana Totovytska, media coordinator for Life, a Ukrainian anti-smoking nonprofit, credits the ban on smoking in public places, adopted in 2012, as a key initiative. “Eliminating smoking in restaurants and bars has been especially effective in the fight against tobacco.”
Totovytska also called for further action. She said parliament needs to regulate the sales of e-cigarettes. “Tobacco companies must stop targeting children with e-cigarettes that come in fun flavors and pretty colors.”
Preventing children from smoking will contribute to long-term, dramatic decreases in national smoking rates.
Konstantin Krasovsky, head of the tobacco control unit of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine,
also believes more can be done.
For the past two years, the Ukrainian government has increased the tobacco tax by 40 percent. This year, however, the Ministry of Finance proposed increasing the tax by only 27 percent.
Krasovsky said that the tax on tobacco should increase dramatically each year to motivate smokers to quit. “Making tobacco less affordable is one of the most important steps on the way to a smoke-free Ukraine.”
The World Bank estimates that a continued tax increase of 40 percent for 2018, as opposed to the proposed 27 percent, would result in the avoidance of 126,730 new cases of smoking-related diseases and 29,127 premature deaths by 2035.The increased health and longetivity of Ukrainians will save at least Hr 1.5 billion in health care costs and Hr 16.5 billion in premature mortality costs, according to World Bank estimates.
