Sellers advertise, silent power, people eat. Russians piled harmful products, starting with children
World day of protection of consumer rights, which is celebrated throughout the civilized world, Russia can be attributed to the holidays, "with tears in his eyes." Despite the fact that the Russians, by law, not less rights than Western consumers, the citizens of our country the majority are deprived of the right to receive reliable and high quality information about how good and not dangerous to the health of the food they consume. In 2008 the emphasis is on the problem of the proliferation of unhealthy food to children. The health Ministry warns that the country rapidly growing number of children suffering from obesity and diabetes.Meanwhile, concern about the health of the nation, it seems, is a headache only to a narrow circle of specialists on the protection of consumer rights. They alone trying to deal with massive advertising unsuitable for children food and lobbyists from among producers of juices and infant formula, expanding its range of proposals for the children's range of goods not complying with the norms of a healthy diet.The revelation of the Chairman of the Board of the International Confederation of consumer societies /CONFOP/ Dmitry Janina indifferent regarding the position of the highest political authorities of the Russian Federation in the protection of citizens from poor quality and unhealthy food discordant with the recent statements made by the authorities during the election campaign that the health of the nation is one of the main priorities of the new leadership of the country.Despite the fact that Russia is the world day of protection of consumer rights is celebrated for 15 times, and in the country there is a law "On protection of consumer rights", the Russians remain one of the most vulnerable and poorly educated in the matter of Nations. Traditionally, the citizens of the country are faced with the "pitfalls" in the housing sector, trade. But in recent years the main "beach" consumer market of the country became poor-quality and dangerous food products, which thanks to aggressive advertising and "frontal" attacks marketers overtake us everywhere.The most vulnerable in this situation were children, which in conditions of "neprodumannosti" parents were victims of propaganda unhealthy diet. That the problem of unhealthy food to children has become one of the first places among the public health problems of the country, on Wednesday recounted the Chairman of the Board CONFOP Dmitry Yanin. According to him, poor diet contributes to the growth in the number of serious diseases, such as obesity and diabetes.Dmitry Yanin said obesity today suffer not only for US citizens /what has long been considered a recognized fact/ but the people of Russia. "Should be considered a delusion by the fact that Russians don't eat well because we /citizens/ poor. Incomes are growing steadily, and the quality of food is poor compared to the quality of food in civilized countries," - said Dmitry Yanin. In his opinion, the culture of consumption of healthy food, especially, the most vulnerable part of the population - children is formed from multiple components. This is public policy, educating the population and, finally, legislation.None of these three factors in Russia practically does not work, says Dmitry Yanin. According to D. Ioannina, in the first place, it is necessary to protect children and their parents from the marketing of unhealthy food advertising in media /on television/ dangerous for the health of baby foods containing excess salt, sugar and other harmful additives. CONFOP willing to take radical measures to protect the rights of consumers in the domestic market of food products. It is proposed, in particular, to ban advertising of all food for children under 6 months, and to prohibit the hours of 6 am to 9 PM commercials all foods with a high content of salt, sugar and fats.According to D. Ioannina, especially attractive look in commercials, cartoon characters, fun chewing food, which is harmful to the child's body. In the coming days, "we intend to sue one large enterprise "fast food" in its menu with the so-called children's lunch, - said the head of CONFOP. - We believe that the introduction of misleading consumers because the products are not children's food.It is obvious that the struggle CONFOP with major players in the consumer market of the country /not only Russian but also foreign giants/ will be more like a war, because at stake are big money. The turnover of the baby food market in Russia is growing annually by 25%. In 2007, the volume of sales in this area amounted to 1 billion 100 million. Manufacturers of baby food are trying to expand not only its product range, but also to obtain legislative authority to extend the age range for children's products, in particular, to obtain permission to implement the juices to infants less than six months.It should be recalled that the marking on the packages of juice about the suitability of their use of children allows to obtain the VAT exemption is only 10%.D. Janin recognized that CONFOP leads the fight for healthy food almost single-handedly. "There is no programme for the prevention of proper nutrition. Moreover, doctors prefer not to warn about the danger of eating unhealthy foods, and to treat existing disease," says Dmitry Yanin.As a result, he continues, in the Russian Federation is observed unbalanced consumption of some micronutrients. For example, deficiency of vitamin C occurs in 60-70% of the population of iron - 20-40%, calcium - 40-60%, iodine - up to 70%.Note that the Russian Federation remains the only one in the civilized world as the country where the problem of iodine deficiency is not resolved /China, for example, has already dealt with this/. According to D. Ioannina, in the Duma for four years gathering dust a law requiring enrich edible salt with iodine. Iodine deficiency - a direct path to thyroid disease, continues the discussion, the representative of the endocrine Research centre Ekaterina Shestakova. "If we stop people on the street and analyze, every fifth woman revealed dysfunction of the thyroid gland. In addition, about 10% of Russian children have iodine deficiency, affecting the brain" - said E. Troshina. "As a result of malnutrition in children appear overweight and obesity, often leading to diabetes", said "the tragic line" under the use of any overseas sweets E. Troshina.Dmitry Yanin, in turn, said that in Europe already came up with effective and intuitive way of dealing with poor quality food - labels on products in addition to traditional information about the number of the contained sugar and salt to represent a traffic light. If painted a solid green light, it means the product is not hazardous to health, and if the red light should it be considered harmful. In Russia, not only do not work a "real" traffic lights on the roads, but the principle of "traffic light" labelling of food products is not going to implement soon.Moreover, the packaging contains detailed information about the characteristics of food. "The industry, occupying the Russian consumer market, much more self-confident than health issues relating to unhealthy diets", is forced to admit Dmitry Yanin. He explicitly says that lobbyists for the food market other levers of influence on the authorities, rather than those that are available to CONFOP. As said Dmitry Yanin, headed the organization don't even have a budget hotline by phone which citizens can complain about poor quality of food distributed in the market.According to D. Ioannina, unlike the US and the EU, the Russian authorities have no political will to uphold the interests of the citizens of the country in terms of quality and healthy food.