The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has approved amendments raising the smoking age limit from 18 to 20 years as of 1 January 2025, LSM reports. The law covers cigarettes, tobacco products, herbal smoking items, electronic smoking devices, and refill containers. Violations can result in fines of EUR 280-700 for individuals and EUR 700-7,100 for legal…
More than every tenth person in Latvia is lonely, according to a Norstat poll for LSM. The survey showed that 13% of residents feel lonely throughout the year, while 25% feel lonelier during autumn and winter. As many as 20% of young people aged 18-29 years feel lonely regardless of the season and 32% during…
Lithuania’s excess mortality, which surged during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, has now returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to experts, LRT reports. In the first eleven months of 2023, nearly 32,000 people died, which was down from almost 39,000 in the same period a year earlier, 43,000 in 2021, and 37,000 in 2020. Despite…
The Estonian government has agreed on the state budget for 2024, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced, ERR reports. Under the agreement, the government will introduce no new taxes in addition to ones implemented earlier. The government will not impose a new tax on commercial banks, which will instead pay more taxable dividends. Also, the government…
Lithuania had the highest suicide rate in the EU in 2020, according to Eurostat data, LSM reported. The number of suicides in Lithuania totalled 21.25 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, which was down from 33.38 in 2011. The suicide rate was 16.87 in Vilnius and the surrounding area. In central and western Lithuania, the suicide…
Latvia’s Health Ministry has proposed amendments to further restrict the availability of alcohol, LSM reports. The amendments would reduce the sales hours of alcoholic beverages, ban sales of alcohol at petrol stations, and raise the legal drinking age to 20 years. The ministry hopes that the amendments will reduce alcohol consumption, illness, injuries, and mortality….
Latvia’s Health Inspectorate has banned swimming on beaches in the port city of Liepaja, following a sewage leak from the city’s water treatment plant into the Baltic Sea, LSM reports. Also, the State Environmental Service (VVD) has recommended residents not to swim in coastal areas from Liepaja north to Saka parish. At the same time,…
Shorter alcohol sale hours in Lithuania have led to a decline in male deaths on Sundays and Mondays, according to a new study, BNS reports. Daumantas Stumbrys, senior researcher at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), found that the mortality rate spiked on Sundays and Mondays, but had decreased to the weekly average since…
Latvia is likely to have a new three-party coalition government consisting of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s New Unity and two current opposition parties, the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) and the Progressives, in August 2023, Ilona Berzina writes for Baltic News Network. Previously, Karins had assured that New Unity would not cooperate with ZZS…
