Following last year’s law on curbing tobacco smoking in public places, Ukrainian parliament adopted a revised law on state control of tobacco turnover.

According to the law, cigarette manufacturers are obliged to report to the ministry of health on all ingredients of their products meant for home consumption, the information to be later published ‘in accordance with established procedure’. In addition to mandatory health warnings, description of the product is permitted to be placed on its pack, but only on conditions that it does not mislead consumers about its health risks. Hence, terms like ‘light’ or ‘low tar’ etc are no longer allowed. Permitted standards for nicotine and tar contents in one cigarette are set at 1.2 mg and 12 mg respectively. At the same time, last month, the Supreme Rada turned down a proposal to bring the size of mandatory health warnings to 45 per cent of a cigarette pack. (vt)