The Washington Post published today an article entitled "Russia tries to improve life expectancy with laws curbing drinking, smoking."
" Hours after his inauguration last May, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ordering his government to increase Russian life expectancy to 74 years by 2018, reflecting urgency in the effort to keep the world’s largest country filled with enough people to sustain it," the article starts.
"More people are dying than are being born. Russians bear a staggering load of risk factors for disease, with 60 percent of men smoking and each citizen consuming, on average, more than four gallons of pure alcohol a year. Half the population is overweight," the article reads.
"Two big steps are in the works to change some of the dynamics. Russia’s lower house of parliament overwhelmingly passed a bill forbidding smoking in public places, which the upper house approved Wednesday and is expected to be signed quickly by Putin. And a law that went into effect Jan. 1 has designated beer as an alcoholic beverage instead of a food, prohibiting its sale in ubiquitous street-corner kiosks. But advocates for better health, leading to longer lives, say Russia needs to do far more."
"Volunteer groups are needed to help people understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle and encourage changes in behavior, health experts say. They call for steps that would go beyond laws and decrees to include pay increases, new equipment and training across the health-care system, along with improvements in the distribution of medicine, which is often prone to interruption."
