MEET THE PROTAGONISTS
Leading figures in the European fight against tobacco in
SERBIA

Tomica Milosavljevic - Minister
Professor Milosavljevic came to the Ministry of Health in 2002 at a time of challenging and complex changes in Serbia.  His situation assessment required data at a national level to determine the internal situation, and at an international level to place Serbia in the European context.  Since that time Serbia has legislated on tobacco advertising and plans to implement a public smoking ban by 2011.  Data has been used both to support this legislation, and to counter the arguments put forward by the tobacco industry and other interested parties.

Snezana Simic - Institute of Social Medicine
As Professor of Social Medicine at the Belgrade School of Medicine Dr Simić is involved with public health research, in Serbia and internationally. Her department responds to requests from the Ministry of Health for research to support tobacco control, and acts as a conduit for information from the national tobacco control network.  She would like to see a greater control mechanism in monitoring smoking prevalence, in order to improve the research data.

Natasa Lazarevic - Advisor, Ministy of Health
In this interview Dr Lazarevic sets the scene of tobacco control in Serbia since 2002, describing the steps that have been taken since, identifying research programmes and surveys and the data they have produced. She provides the back ground to the Minister’s comments on tobacco control and a time-line leading to the anticipated legislation against smoking in all public places in Serbia, in January 2011.