The industry makes trade with death and is looking for the high-ranking allies to promote its interests. This industry, and more precisely, its representatives do not act publicly, openly, they prefer shade, darkness and secret entrances to the offices of the executives.
In the Chisinau Parliament appeared the lawmakers, inclined to propose amendments (actually, neutralization) of the Act, for which they voted in May last year. As yet they are gently sounding out the situation and their cooperation with the tobacco industry is a big mystery.
The Republic of Moldova is a party of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, banning any cooperation with manufacturers and importers of cigarettes. Moldova pledged to the world Bank to reduce the annual number of smokers by 1%, starting from the second year of the Law implementation, and to gradually increase the excise taxes on tobacco products with the purpose of obtaining funding from the World Bank for the modernization of the health system.
May 29, 2015 69 lawmakers (the Communists were not present at the session) have voted for the Law on Tobacco Control (No. 278). The document is aimed at population protection from the effects of smoking and exposure to smoke and a complete smoking prohibition in public and enclosed public areas. May 31, 2016 came into force the smoking prohibition, which includes the designated areas in enclosed public areas.
However, December 16, 2015 year nearly 7 months after the adoption of the Law on Tobacco Control, in State Registration Chamber was registered an LLC, which says on its website that it “specializes in selling and installing stand-alone cabins for smoking, specialized filter systems, as well as equipment for smoking” and that “it is the first company in Moldova that offers a wide range of products for arranging places for smoking”.
Strange initiative to start such a business, we would say, in the midst of what Parliament had just passed a law prohibiting smoking in the enclosed public areas, including the smoking cabins. The company is called “Smoking Room” SRL, has registered capital of ... 100 lei, the director and founder of the company is Vadim Belii, who is also a fan of Porsche cars.
Incognito
We were curious to see how he makes the business and how he convinces the customers that they need to spend from 8 to 23 thousand euros on the booth which will serve as an element of decoration and it will be absolutely worthless, because smoking in it is forbidden. So we presented ourselves as buyers and asked him to submit us a proposal, upon receipt of which we went to his office for negotiations and the satisfaction of our curiosity of how would provide rationale for the purchase and installation of such booths in the presence of potential buyers in the conditions of Law 278 on Tobacco Control from May 29, 2015.
We met Vadim Belii at the office, located at: Mesager 1/2, Chisinau mun. , this address is also specified in the State Registration Chamber. The office is equipped with a computer, furnished, and there are folders with the proposals of the company at the table. We had look at one of the folders. We asked Vadim if the firm had so far sold at least one of the booths? The answer was negative. Nevertheless, the firm affords to have an office that looks well enough inside, and also has a lawyer with ties to the “ranking ones”.
“We are together with the lawyer, but we go upwards”
We told him that we wanted to buy 4 smoking booths, but also wanted to be sure that we would not throw away money because of the above mentioned law. Vadim assured us in broken Romanian that the lawyer had already prepared the amendments to the law, which he considers to be too strict, and that he was going to pass these amendments to someone in Parliament:
Vadim Belii: - I talked to a lawyer and he told me that the draft amendments to the law is ready and will be presented for discussion at a meeting of the Parliament.
- But does your lawyer know that...
Vadim Belii: - I've seen this amendment. It says all. He reasoned it with examples of how the law works in the EU...
- But these amendments, who offered them - was that your lawyer or someone from the top?
Vadim Belii: - we are together with the lawyer, but we go upwards.
Vadim White said his company imports the booths from Russia, and air filters for them - from Germany. In 2014 Russia has banned smoking in cabins in enclosed public areas and now will try to get rid of them by exporting to countries such as the Republic of Moldova, where the tobacco industry still hopes to distort the Law as of year 2015, which puts the common interest of the public health higher than the major profits of transnational tobacco companies.
According to the manager of the company “Smoking Room” SRL, the probability of that it will be possible to change a law adopted on May 29, 2015 in the context of permissions on smoking in enclosed public areas, in the specially designated areas is 50-50 chance.
Performing actors
Some owners and lessees of the cafes, restaurants and casinos said that they are disappointed with new tobacco control law. They say that as long as smoking is banned in the enclosed and semi-closed public areas the smokers avoid these places which led to the decline of profits, and as a consequence, to bankruptcy. Three shopping centres, “Jumbo”, “Atrium” and “SunCity”, have also sent a letter to the President of the Parliament, Andrianu Kandu, and the prime Minister, Paul Philip, wherein they threatened with protest unless there will be “urgently taken measures and granted permission for constructing in our restaurants and cafes the rooms for smokers and non-smokers, as well as separate areas for smoking”.
In this regard, Deputy Health Minister Alena Serbulenko said at a meeting of the National Coordination Council for the tobacco control, attended by representatives of the Association of restaurants and resting place that the “directed petitions have the similar content. They are different only by the signature, and the author is the same - the tobacco industry.”
In reality, affirms Serbulenko, “both people and businesses support the application of the Law No. 278”. According to her, “so far there has been no serious petitions from the economic entities of the catering or hotel services”. Serbulenco said that the Ministry of Health and the national Center of Public Health had assessed the situation of income from the sales of public catering facilities in the period of May-June 2016 (obtained from National Bureau of Statistics) and found that the turnover (income from sales) in June had reached an amount of 159,711.2 thousand lei compared to 152,427.8 thousand lei in May (an increase of 4%).
Subsequently, the Prime Minister, Pavel Filip, met with those persons who consider themselves affected by the application of the anti-tobacco law, but the press was not allowed to this meeting. Pavel Filip is well informed about the schemas on the market of tobacco products. During 208-2011 years he was the Director of the state-owned company “Tutun-CTC”, but through the journalistic investigation by Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism, who was able to prove that at that time the "Tutun-CTC" company has illegally produced cigarettes "Jin Ling", which came to EU market through smuggling.
Fish story: “Sales are falling!”
At the meeting of the National Coordination Council in the field of Tobacco Control, the President of the Association of Restaurants Aneta Zasavitski tried to justify the need for amendment to the Law 278 for purposes of arrangement of special smoking areas in enclosed public areas. She said that the smoking ban in the enclosed areas has caused a “significant reduction” in the level of customers who visit the location of the closed type, located in shopping centers: “This isn’t the fish story, this is reality.” However, she said that the Association, which she heads, will never encourage any violations of the law by any economic agents: "On the contrary, we will comply until we get satisfaction or rejection of our demands" - the legalization of smoking in the smoking booths in the enclosed areas.
The Center for Healthcare Policy and Research has recently published the results of a study according to which more than 90% of locations perform the anti-smoking law. However, in some cafes people are smoking still. In an interview on the Pro-TV channel Aneta Zasavitski decried the indiscipline owners of the cafes: “Some restaurants are taking the risk and breaking the law, despite the fact that it is dishonorable”. While the law is not amended, I urge all restaurant owners to comply with the law, as we find ourselves in conditions of unfair competition among colleagues. And it's disgusting,” she said.
Ghenadie Turcanu: “This is a ploy of the tobacco industry”
According to the expert of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, Ghenadie Turcanu, one of the authors of the Law 278, this apparent disappointment is part of an elaborated scheme of the tobacco industry through which they can hope for the possibility to distort the law: “2-5 years ago when we began the development of the draft law on tobacco control, there were no associations that protected the interests of smokers. They appeared immediately after the adoption of the law. This happened in all countries which adopted the similar laws. There were conducted researches for on this subject. As soon as such a very good law is adopted, the tobacco industry begins funding this kind of associations. If there is adopted an ineffective law, such associations do not appear - the tobacco industry is in no hurry to spend money on lobbying of such a law,” explained Mr. Turcanu.
According to him, the targets of the tobacco industry aren’t the smoker with 30 years of experience, but the teenagers of 13-14 years, which they want to catch on the hook - make them addicted to nicotine, and to squeeze money out of them for 20-25 years, thus increasing their profits. “You know that in the United States there has been filed a lawsuit against major tobacco companies, and they were obliged to publish all the scientific data on tobacco marketing. And if you read them, you will see that the tobacco industry 30 years ago has data of its experts, including healthcare, showing that nicotine is addictive, but continued development of this profitable business that kills people. So this kind of pressure from the side of tobacco industry will exist in the future. It is important for the supervisory authorities to do their job to enforce the law,” - said the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research expert.
Tobacco controls the law
The tobacco industry, as we know, tries to influence legislation on a global level, based on their own interests. This industry annually spends billions of dollars on “lobbying” and, at the moment, is the only industry which contributed to the resignation of one of the European commissioners, the high Commissioner in the field of public health, John Dalli in 2012, for trying to influence European legislation concerning the sale of tobacco. The World Health Organization has released guidelines in order to prevent interaction of the tobacco industry and the government have influenced legislation to the detriment of the citizens.
Tobacco industry sells death
Smoking is a cause of cancer and many other diseases. The people working in the sphere of public catering, know how difficult it is to obtain a certificate of food safety. And although we all know that tobacco smoke kills, authorities encourage these deals with death, giving permission to the companies that kill us.
After the vote in respect of the Law 278, where the press was not admitted, in Parliament and government, the louder is the rustle of monies, which the tobacco industry is willing to spend to protect a profitable business. The tobacco industry wants by means of monies, illegal, to interfere in the legislative process regarding public health. They want to get the law that focuses on people as patients, not people as buyers.
The Parliament cannot pass a law that would ban the diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, however, while retaining the ban on smoking in enclosed public places it may reduce the incidence of these diseases. Such a law can save hundreds of thousands of lives. It can protect the generations of teenagers who the tobacco industry is hunting for.
12 Moldavians die daily as a result of “terrorist acts”
According to statistics, in Moldova every fourth citizen is smoking, and 70% of tobacco users start smoking before reaching 18 years of age. Annually in Moldova there are nearly 5,600 deaths caused by tobacco use. In addition, the state annually “burns” about 1 billion lei for the treatment and rehabilitation of smokers who have destroyed their health. Can you imagine? It looks as if in Moldova there would be killed 15 people every day as consequence of the terrorist act. Every day there are 15 divine services, conducted by priests, 15 coffins which are hammered with nails, 15 families in tears as a result of cigarettes smoking. Every day. For many years.
The tobacco industry is conducting something like the endless election campaign. There is a real network of “actors” (agents in the elections) and strategies (electoral program) that contain the myths, favorable to the tobacco industry. We are talking about “researchers” that are subject to industry, various associations for the protection of the rights of smokers and other cover groups, the group of the paid “troubadours” who want to convince us that the tobacco industry “supports the economy”. In fact, the tobacco industry doesn’t make contributions to the budget, but the smokers who buy another pack of cigarettes. The industry “troubadours” has almost created a subversive science and organize campaigns focused on discrediting scientific findings.
The ban on smoking in public places is not directed against smokers, but it helps to smoke less and/or quit smoking and to protect others from secondhand smoke.
The Law 278 prohibits smoking in all public enclosed or partially enclosed areas, regardless of the access type and type of ownership. This category includes all restaurants, bars, clubs, discos and any other resting place intended for public access. The same law provides the strict rules designed to prevent smoking, but they will come into force later. From 1 January 2018, each packet of cigarettes will be presented with warnings about the consequences for health, which will cover 65% of packets, and in 2020 there will be prohibited the selling of cigarettes with different flavors.
Relevant data
The ICIJ team - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - has proved the participation of large companies producing tobacco in cigarette smuggling.
In 1999, a group of journalists from ICIJ - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists -, has proven the existence of the agreements of large companies producing tobacco with organized crime networks.
In 2008, another ICIJ team has resumed the investigation in the field of tobacco industry. The journalists have uncovered the “Jin Ling” business. The firm that stands behind these cigarettes is “Baltic Tobacco Factory” (BTF) from Kaliningrad. The “Jin Ling” has been created specifically for smuggling.
Between 2006 and 2008 there were killed more than 60 people who had to deal with the illegal trafficking of cigarettes from Eastern Europe. Regional prosecutors, who had investigated the cases of illegal trade, disappeared without a trace, and the smugglers have removed themselves to earn as much money in this market - a huge market worth billions of euros.
By report.md