On November 18 that is considered an International No Smoking Day, Russian capital has launched a new anti-smoking campaign "Non-smoking Moscow". The authorities required that all owners of restaurants and cafes should prohibit smoking in their establishments for the whole week. In order to make smokers quit their dangerous habit a new social advertising was started on TV.

Muscovites still remember last year’s shocking advertising when every street of Moscow had a billboard which showed a sleeping baby with a cigarette butt on his back. After a burst of indignation that advertisement was replaced with a new one, showing a butt slitting a man’s vein. According to sociologists from 70% of Muscovites who saw those advertisements every ninth person quit after some time.

This time deputies of the Moscow City Duma sew a new video, the reaction was immediate. The majority of deputies declared that "That this video is like a horror movie!" But as stated the chairwoman of the Healthcare Commission at the Moscow City Duma, Lyudmila Stebenkova, this video won’t work.

"I think that this video is not quite frightening, because it is just the true," Lyudmila Stebenkova says. In this video a man and a woman inhale a tobacco smoke, the smoke around them shows various dangerous consequences that it can lead to, as for example- respiratory problems, hearing loss and many other hazardous things. In case a pregnant woman smokes, her baby also suffers from it.

"We want to draw the attention of our citizens to the dangerous effects of second-hand smoking. Last year about 70% of Moscow citizens saw our advertisements and this year we hope to achieve better results," Lyudmila Stebenkova stated. Such social advertisements are spread in many countries. For instance, in the US, there is a video in which a seller offers various cigarette packs to his clients, asking him what he prefers a cardiac disease or lung cancer. The task of the present campaign to struggle against second-hand smoking, most of all in case it affects children.

Last year we led a campaign that was called "Give up smoking today" and we demonstrated people a sponge, which is associated with lungs, presenting information about how much tobacco human lungs absorb annually (approximately 150 milliliters of tar). Now we want to show what second hand smoke can lead to, its dangerous effects on people and most of all on children.

The national anti-tobacco campaign for 2010-2015 is aimed at helping Russians quit their unhealthy habit. From now on it will be very costly to be a smoker in Russia. The government plans to increase the number of non smoking places, to raise taxes on tobacco products and to increase excise duty rates thus bringing them to European level.