- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday October 25 2000 03.27 BST
Interfax news agency quoted Oleg Shchepin of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences as referring to "a national catastrophe".
He was speaking at a health ministry meeting called to discuss the decline seen in the last year. Mr Shchepin said overall life expectancy fell by one year in 1999 to 65.5 years,an average age of 59.8 for men and 72 for women. The general level of illness had risen 15%. The death rate was 14.7 people per 1,000 while the birth rate stood at 8.4 per 1,000, Mr Shchepin said. The official 1998 figures were 13.6 and 8.8 respectively.
Andrei Vorobyev, a haematologist, was quoted as saying at the meeting that two of the main reasons for the worsening figures were smoking and vodka, which resulted in more cancer cases, heart problems and death from accidents. The prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has expressed worry that the nation is dwindling.
