The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Interior and the World Health Organization Office in Moldova are launching the campaign “Moldova gets out of smoke. A year of successes and challenges”. The event is dedicated to the World No Tobacco Day and will be held at national level during May 25-31, IPN reports.

Within the campaign, visits will be made to different public places to see how the anti-smoking law is respected. There will be staged activities to promote a healthy lifestyle.

According to Deputy Minister of Health Aliona Serbulenko, the forces at different levels were combined last year and this is the biggest accomplishment. NGOs became involved alongside the responsible institutions.

Marin Maxian, head of the General Public Security Division of the General Police Inspectorate, said the over 7 million lei fines imposed in the period and the over 2.5 million lei fines collected show there is yet a trend to break the law that bans smoking in public places.

The Public Health Center said the number of patients with chronic diseases caused by smoking in the national hospitals decreased by about 10% after the coming into force of the antismoking law. The number of referrals to specialists for persons who suffer from ischemic cardiopathy and chronic bronchitis decreased considerably.

Over 48% of the men and slightly over 8% of the women smoke in Moldova. This ratio among children aged between 13 and 15 is of over 10%. Statistics show that about 6,000 Moldovans die annually from diseases caused by smoking. Over 60% of them die early, at working age.