Prime Minister Iurie Leanca was given the highest anti-smoking award of the World Health Organization (WHO). The award, which includes a medal and a recognition diploma, is conferred on the World No Tobacco Day that is marked annually on May 31, IPN reports.
According to a communiqué of the Government, the Premier is among the 37 awardees from all over the world – representatives of executives, institutions and organizations that achieved results in combating smoking. Five persons received this award in the European region. Besides Iurie Leanca, the awardees in this region include European Commissioner for Health, the health ministers of Ireland and Lithuania, and the director of FRESH/Smokefree in the UK and Ireland. WHO director general Margaret Chan will come to Chisinau to personally hand over the award to Iurie Leanca.
Every year since 1988, the World Health Organization has given awards to personalities from all over the world for actively tacking smoking.
On December 17 last year, the Leanca Governemnt adopted a decision on tobacco control, which bans smoking in closed and semi-closed public places, at the workplace and in public units of transport and introduces penalties for managers of places where smoking is banned and for smokers. Shortly afterward, the Premier launched an anti-smoking campaign. Moldova now ranks fourth in Europe by the number of smokers, with almost 750,000 people dependent on nicotine.
