On 17 January the State Duma’s Health Protection Committee recommended to pass in the second reading amendments to the federal act «On tobacco smoking restriction», which provide brining Russian tobacco production standards in correspondence to the norms of Worldwide Health Organization (WHO).

In the first reading (June 2007) State Duma passed the corresponding bill, which provides step-by-step reducing of the quantity of resin and nicotine up to the standards, suggested by EU. For filtertipped cigarettes the maximum quantity of resin is reduced from 14 to 10 milligrammes and quantity of nicotine — from 1,2 to 1 milligrammes, and for non-filtertipped cigarettes the quantity of resin — from 16 to 14 milligrammes, and nicotine — from 1,3 to 1,2 milligrammes.

In the course of the preparation of the document to the second reading the profile committee recommended to pass an amendment, according to which the size of the warning notice on a cigarette pack must be 50% and more from the total area in stead of the present 4% (the variant of the first reading - not less than 30%). According to the document, these changes are to come into effect from 1 July 2009. Ekaterina Olemskaya, Deputy Director of Quality Control Department, told about how much resin and nicotine the production of «Donskoy Tabak» contains and whether the company is ready to such changes in the legislation:

«For the present moment the following legislative standards for the content of resin and nicotine prevail in the RF: for filtertipped cigarettes — not more than 14 mg per cigarette of resin, not more than 1,2 mg per cigarette of nicotine; for non-filtertipped cigarettes — not more than 16 mg per cigarette of resin and not more than 1,3 mg per cigarette of nicotine. Cigarettes produced on the JSC «Donskoy Tabak» meet the fixed standards according to the safety index. For example, the content of resin and nicotine in non-filtertipped cigarettes makes 14 and 0,8 mg per cigarette accordingly, in filtertipped cigarettes it varies from 1/0,1 to 13/0,9.

In 2007 the specialists of our enterprise did a great work, preparing the transition to the standard 10/1/10 (resin/nicotine/CO). Passing of the amendments to the act «On tobacco smoking restriction» won’t be a surprise for us. The similar transition to the reduced content of resin and nicotine already took place in 2002, when new standards of resin and nicotine content were set in Russia (from 01.01.2003, by the federal act «On tobacco smoking restriction»)».

«As for the size of the warning notice about the harm of smoking, for the present moment it constitutes 4% from each biggest side of the pack on all the production, manufactured by JSC «Donskoy Tabak», — comments on Svetlana Dobrydneva, Deputy Director of Marketing of JSC «Donskoy Tabak». — In the restrictions registered in the convention it is stated, that the warning notice must constitute 50% and more, but not less than 30%. I suppose that the majority of the producers in Russian tobacco market will work within the framework of 30%.

A three-year period is given for adaptation to the new restrictions. This period will be enough to transfer qualitatively the present packing designs in accordance with new demands and to get accustomed the consumers to a new look of tobacco packs. On the whole, we support joining the convention and will do our best to preserve our product competitive even with such strict demands».