OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2011. It is stipulated by the amendments to the Law on advertisement, approved by the government. The health minister Andrei Usatii said advertisement of only strong alcoholic beverages with the alcohol share starting from 25% on TV and radio from 7 a.m. till 10 p.m. had been banned in the country before that.

Now the total ban on the direct and indirect advertisement of absolutely all alcoholic beverages, including wine, and beer on television, radio, in periodicals and electronic media, Internet, movie theaters, public transport is planned to be introduced. Any outdoor advertisement of alcohol and beer will be banned as well. The health minister said it is also planned to ban sale of alcoholic beverages and beer to people under 21 years old in future and to prohibit sale of these beverages after 10 p.m.

He emphasized that these measures would be taken in the framework of the National program of combating excessive alcohol consumption given the fact that the country, according to the World Health Organization’s report, ranks the first in the world in terms of alcohol beverages consumption. Andrei Usatii said that according to estimates, about 52% of the total number of alcohol beverages consumers are youth that is also excessively prone to advertisement, propagandizing consumption of these beverages.

The health minister of Moldova emphasized that alcohol is the main reason of different diseases and deaths in accidents. He said citizens’ interests are higher than interests of the alcohol producers, that is why, such strict measures of banning alcohol advertisement and limiting its scale will be taken. The WHO earlier published the report on the quantity of alcohol consumed by residents of countries.

According to it, Moldovan representatives drink most of all – 18.22 liters of pure alcohol a year per man. It is almost thrice more than the average global parameter of 6.1 liters. The Czech Republic is the second – 16.45 liters of pure alcohol per man, Hungary is the third – 16.25 liters.