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When a strict anti-tobacco law came into effect three years ago, Maria Eugenia Avila scoffed. She had no intention of quitting the two packs a day she was delightfully smoking. She just stopped going to malls.
"I flee from places where I can't smoke and I cover the horrible warnings on the packs. I love smoking and I suffer with this law and all its prohibitions. But no law is going to make me quit," the 47-year-old kindergarten teacher said, while puffing away on a habit that costs her nearly $150 a month.
Three years into the tobacco-control legislation, Chileans are far from kicking the habit. Smoking among Chileans has remained fairly stable, dropping slightly from 42.6 percent in 2006, to 41.2 percent in 2008, with a perilous upward trend among women (currently 37.4 percent) and teenagers (35.4 percent, particularly females), according to the latest government survey on tobacco consumption.
This makes Chileans the heaviest smokers in the region. Another "smoker" country is Argentina, but it lags behind with smokers making up 30 percent of its population, according to the World Health Organization. Slightly more than 16 percent of Brazilians and about 19 percent of Mexicans smoke, while in the United States, 23 percent of the overall population are smokers.
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An ailing infant, emaciated and hooked up to oxygen support after being birthed by a tobacco smoker, will grace the packages of cigarettes sold in Chile starting in November.
High smoking prevalence
According to recent studies carried out by CONACE (Consejo Nacional para el Control de Estupefacientes) and the PAHO (Pan-American Health Organisation), Chile has as of 2008 one of the highest smoking prevalence rates in the world – 31% of the male population and 27% of the female population (in both cases measuring daily smokers of cigarettes among the population aged 12-64) for a combined 29% prevalence in that population. This rate is double that of the US and is higher than the rate in Europe. Other sources have different figures as they consider different age brackets, to include only consumers with legal smoking age. Chile has the highest tobacco consumption among adults in Latin America and the highest smoking prevalence among young people, with one in three teenagers in Chile being smokers.
Relaxation of tobacco legislation
In 2008, several associations representing the interests of restaurants, retailers and the tobacco industry asked the Chilean government to clarify the meaning of some of the restrictions contained in the Tobacco Law implemented in 2007, since in their opinion the bodies in charge of enforcing the law had misunderstood it. In December 2008 the Contralor General de Chile (Chile’s General Controller) made it clear that, as it stands, the law allows the separation of smoking and no smoking areas by using appropriate ventilation systems and, therefore, no physical separation is compulsory. Similarly, in what may seem a small technical detail, but one that could potentially render ineffective one of the cornerstones of the anti-tobacco law, Chile’s General Controller made it clear that the law prohibits selling tobacco products within 100m of school main entrances, but not all entrances, as the Ministry of Health argued.
Cigarettes sector run as a monopoly . . .
Low-tar brands and filter technology to drive growth
This databook provides key data and information on the tobacco market in Chile. This report is a comprehensive resource for market, category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution share and company & brand share. This report also provides expenditure and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.
In the Republic of Chile, school-attending youths were sampled from all 13 regions of the country, with sample size of 46,907 youths from 8th to 12th grades. A Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) approach to multiple logistic regression was used to address three interdependent response variables, tobacco smoking, cannabis smoking, and coca paste smoking, and to estimate associations.
Results
Drug-specific adjusted slope estimates indicate that youths at the highest levels of behavioral problems are an estimated 1.1 times more likely to have started smoking tobacco, an estimated 1.6 times more likely to have started cannabis smoking, and an estimated 2.0 times more likely to have started coca paste smoking, as compared to youths at the lowest level of behavioral problems (p < 0.001).
Conclusion
In Chile, there is an association linking behavioral problems with onsets of smoking tobacco and cannabis, as well as coca paste; strength of association is modestly greater for coca paste smoking.
Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company, is suing Chiletabacos, the Chilean affiliate of the multinational British American Tobacco (BAT), three years after the Supreme Court ruled that BAT practiced unfair market strategies, allowing the company to have a large monopoly of Chile's tobacco sales.
Philip Morris, which represents 4 percent of the Chilean tobacco market, brought its charges against BAT on July 14, demanding US$137.5 million in compensation.
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/51ef33/tobacco_in_chile) has announced the addition of the "Tobacco in Chile" report to their offering.
The Tobacco in Chile report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - by the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change.
Lawmakers in Shanghai are moving to ban billboards urging people to "Love China", which were put up to promote one of the country's major cigarette brands, Chung Hua. "Chung Hua" in Chinese also means China.
The slogan of four Chinese characters "Ai Wo Chung Hua" (Love China) is emblazoned on bright red billboards featuring a picture of Beijing's landmark Tian'anmen Gate at the entrance to the former Imperial Palace. The billboards also have the Chinese for "Smoking can damage your health".
"The slogan 'Love China' is good, but when producers put 'Smoking can damage your health' beside it, the slogan becomes an advertisement," said Li Ming, a deputy to the on-going Shanghai People's Congress.
"All advertising related to tobacco or tobacco companies must be banned in line with the law," said Li, who is also vice head of Shanghai Lawyers Association.
Such covert advertising is also used for other tobacco brands, including Huangshan, produced by Bengbu Cigarette Factory, and Baisha, made by Baisha Group, Li said.
This databook is a detailed information resource covering all the key data points on Tobacco in Chile. It includes comprehensive value volume segmentation and market share data. The databook supplies actual data to 2006 and full forecasts to 2011.
The Ministry of Health launched a new, two month anti-smoking campaign on Monday which aims to prevent minors from becoming smokers. The campaign will use TV and radio spots that urge adults to refrain from smoking in front of their children.
One of the spots contains the following message: “Children can’t choose, but you can. Don’t smoke or let others smoke in front of your children.â€
This is the first time Chile has employed an anti-smoking campaign of this kind.
Critics of Chile's recently enacted anti-smoking laws insisted this week that enforcement has been lax and that the Health Ministry should take stronger measures to combat the nation's addiction to tobacco.
The law came into effect on August 14th of 2006 and requires designated non-smoking areas in restaurants, a prohibition on cigarette sales within 300 feet of primary schools, and anti-smoking ads on 50 percent of all cigarette packages.
Sen. Guido Girardi, a physician, announced Monday that he will present measures to toughen the current tobacco law. "There has to be a total prohibition of smoking in all restaurants, certain offices, television programs and an advertisements ban on the Internet," said Girardi. "I think tobacco companies use various tricks in their effort to kill the public. The tobacco law has worked in some areas, but at the same time, has to be a lot more tough."
A recent World Health Organization study of 193 nations determined that 36.8 percent of Chile’s female population smokes an average of eight cigarettes daily, giving Chile the highest percentage of women smokers in the world. The study found that three out of every ten females under the age of 15 in Chile are addicted to tobacco.
The study, published Friday, attributed female smoking addiction to successful PR efforts by the tobacco industry, aimed at making female smoking “en vogue” and related to women’s liberty and sexual freedoms. While young female smokers may start for those reasons, after several years cigarettes become a form of stress relief, a way to escape anxiety or tension, and, oftentimes, an addiction.
The rise of women smokers in Chile has had a major impact on health. The number of female deaths due to pulmonary cancer has almost doubled in the last 15 years
Four months after a very strict, controversial tobacco law took effect, Chile’s Ministry of Health is wrestling with the problems associated with the new rules. . . .
One of the recurring problems is that hotels and casinos are exempted from the law, yet restaurants operating at those businesses must adhere to the law.
After reviewing complaints, Public Health undersecretary Lidia Amarales announced that smoking will be prohibited in any place underage people are allowed to enter.
Chilean ad agency Perfil BTL created fake cigarettes that were then placed on the streets. The cigarettes were "rolled" with a paper telling smokers that they need help:
Fake cigarettes were placed in high-traffic streets in Chile, rolled with a PSA paper telling smokers: "It seems not only do you need a cigarette, you also need help."
SMOKERS wishing to top up their nicotine levels while on holiday needn't bother heading to Chile, where a ban on smoking in public has been introduced. In a bid to cut the number of tobacco-related deaths, lighting up is now banned in parks, beaches, buses, schools, hospitals and stadiums, with restaurants to follow suit by May. The clear Andean air is now even purer, with few smokers willing to risk a £15 fine by puffing in public.
It's a trend seen all across Latin America: Uruguay implemented one of the region's toughest laws in March; Cuba restricted smoking in public last year; and restaurants in some parts of Mexico are now required to have a non-smoking section. Leaving for Las Vegas