Poisonous smoke in Moscow cafes
by Andy Potts at 01/06/2011
The Moscow News
W
ake
up and smell the coffee – but don’t breathe too deeply if you’re
having breakfast in your local Moscow café.
The air in the no-smoking area of an average venue is 4.5 times more toxic than World Health Organisation safe levels: in the smoking section poisonous pollution is nine times above the acceptable level.
As International No Smoking Day saw its healthcare message waft away on the breeze, alarming figures from the health ministry showed the extent of the passive smoking peril in the capital.
Shared threat
Monitors toured Moscow’s bars, cafes and restaurants to check out the quality of air.
And in many cases they found alarmingly high levels of ambient smoke, with a potentially devastating knock-on effect on the health of staff and non-smoking customers.
“Air pollution affects not only the health of customers, but also the staff of cafes and restaurants,” the ministry told RIA Novosti.
“We know that tobacco smoke increases the risk of cardio-vascular disease by 60 per cent and the risk of lung cancer by up to 32 per cent.
“Moreover, many customers come to cafes with their children, who are forced to become passive smokers as well.”
One in three smokes regularly
The worldwide GATS survey of adult smoking habits found that 43.9 million people in Russia smokes – almost one third of the total population of the country, and more than one in three adults.
About 35 per cent of Russians encounter second-hand smoke at work; in restaurants the number is 78.6 per cent and in bars it tops 90 per cent.
And even in the corridors of power the problem lingers. Gennady Onishchenko, the country’s chief sanitary officer, lamented the smoky fug found in the White House where Russia’s lawmakers flout their own legislation.
“I walk down the corridor and there is a heart-rending smell of tobacco, even though the law says that smoking is prohibited public institutions,” he said at a Tuesday press conference.
Slow pace of change
However, there are a growing number of smoke-free oases in Moscow. Several western-style coffee bars have demanded that customers stub out before sitting down.
And music-lovers who prefer going to a concert without smelling like an ashtray have long enjoyed visiting Dom, a quirky Zamoskvorechye concert hall with a strict cigarette ban.
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Health minister invents new medical treatment, again
by Alina Lobzina at 15/06/2012
The Moscow News
A
pharmaceutical invention of Russia’s new health minister, Veronika
Skvortsova, might become a real “blockbuster” on the market,
according to experts linked with the State Duma.
A new anti-thrombosis medicine patented by the health chief could fill a niche if investors are found to back the drug’s release, according to David Melik-Guseinov, member of the State Duma coordination council for innovations in healthcare and pharmaceutics.
“Skvortsova’s medicine has every chance to become a blockbuster, if it proves its effectiveness,” Melik-Guseinov told Izvestia.
Virtual reality invention
Skvortsova joined the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev shortly after the former president swapped jobs with the country’s current leader President Vladimir Putin at the end of May.
During her first weeks in office, the new minister drew the media’s attention mostly by her inventive talents.
Skvortsova, who has registered several medical creations, holds a patent for treating stokes using virtual reality. The method helps patients regain control over their movements by making them feel as if they were dolphins.
None of her inventions have yet been used in real life, Izvestia reported.
Russia’s previous health chief, Tatyana Golikova, was often under fire under fire for her alleged backing of an anti-flu medicine manufactured by a Russian company.
Filling a niche
Skvortsova’s anti-thrombosis medicine could bring some $6.5 million-$7 million in profit annually, according to Finam analysts Anna Mishustina and Maxim Klyagin. They put the profitability of the product at 30-40 percent.
Melik-Guseinov said that $5 million would be enough to introduce the medicine onto the Russian market, but for brining it to the international market some $1 billion would be needed.
“Many pharmaceutical companies develop similar products, but no one is able to introduce a perfect drug. Therefore, there is a chance that the Russian medicine could fill a good niche,” he told Izvestia.
The cost of the medicine for customers, however, is impossible to predict. “The cost results from the price and the frequency of use,” president of the Evidence-Based Healthcare Society, Vasily Vlasov, told the daily.
Anti-viral medicine Arbidol, allegedly pushed to the market by Golikova, was cheap but then the price suddenly rocketed, he added.
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