(www.kommersant.com)- - No more than 30 percent of the children in Russia could be called absolutely healthy, said Nikolay Gerasimenko, deputy chairman of the State Duma�s Committee for Health Protection.
In Russia, the number of healthy children varies from 5 percent to 30 percent by different estimates, Gerasimenko told �The Low Birthrate in the RF, Challenges and Strategic Approaches� international seminar.

The reasons are alcoholism of the nation and using and spreading the drugs, the deputy explained, emphasizing that some 500,000 to 700,000 annually die of alcohol in the country.

Making the children healthier calls for the thorough control of advertising targeted at the children and teenagers. The slogans that urge to �take everything from the life� should be crossed out, while the propaganda of healthy life-style should improve, the deputy said.

According to Federal Statistics Service, 715,400 babies were born in Russia in the first half of this year, 6,500 less than a year earlier. The natural loss of the population (the difference between the number of died and the number of born) was 415,300 vs. 462,300 in 2005.