Tobacco.org

• No smoking in Chile? No way.  

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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• Latin Tobacco: Negative Outlook 

Countries throughout Latin America have been increasing the number of laws controlling labeling and public smoking. In the midst of growing health concerns and increased global pressures to establish and enforce tobacco legislation, some Latin American countries are strongly pushing new legislation as it relates to bans on tobacco, while others are making moves to expand previous legislation that was rarely enforced.

Much of this legislation stems from the World Health Organization�?(TM)s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This enforcement comes at a time when many Latin American countries are recovering from economic difficulties requiring governments to focus on recovery and less on smoking regulation. . . .

In an effort to increase the population’s awareness of health issues that arise from smoking, many Latin American countries have instated labeling legislations requiring written warnings and images on tobacco packing. Labeling cigarettes as “light”, “ultra light” and “mild” has become a major target for cigarette packaging. Legislators believe that the “light” labeling can mislead consumers into thinking that the product is better for them than the alternative. Brazil has been at the forefront of tobacco control with one of the most extensive tobacco legislations in Latin America.

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• Nations from the Region of the Americas Collaborate to Save Lives and Reduce Economic Losses by Cracking Down on Illicit Tobacco Trade 

Representatives from 35 countries are gathering in Montevideo, Uruguay on December 5, 2007 to work on knowledge-gathering and skill-sharing on the illicit trade of tobacco -- a global crime that contributes to higher rates of tobacco-related disease and death, helps finance criminal and terrorist groups, and robs governments of $US billions in revenue.

The December meeting of American Region delegates is a working conference to prepare for the upcoming meeting in Geneva in February 2008 when representatives of 151 countries will begin negotiations on the international protocol aimed at eliminating illicit tobacco trade. Combating illicit trade is a key provision of the world's first international public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the World Health Organization.

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• Cigar tax proposal threatens US retailers, Latin American countries 

(Thomson Financial) - US specialty tobacco shops are worried that a proposed increase in federal taxes on cigars will drive thousands of small retailers out of business, and could also lead to substantial job losses in Latin American countries that produce and export most cigars sold in the US. . . .

Chris McCalla, legislative director for the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, said the taxes being considered could force premium cigar prices in the US to double or even triple, since the tax would apply every time a cigar changes hands at the import, distribution and retail levels. As one example, he said a 4 usd cigar could cost as much as 12 usd under the new tax.

McCalla said the tax would likely drive a large percentage of the 3,600 specialty tobacco retailers in the US out of business, since he does not expect consumers to pay this steep price.

'If this happens, expect a great number of these family-owned cigar shops to close,' he said of the legislation. McCalla's group includes about 2,000 small retailers as members.

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• World No-Tobacco Day in LAC: RIACT Launched 

Brazil's Health Minister, José Gomes Temporão, today announced the launch of the Ibero-American Tobacco Control Network (RIACT - Rede Ibero-Americana de Controle do Tabagismo in Portuguese, Red Ibero-Americana de Control del Tabaquismo in Spanish) to bring together the tobacco control authorities of (Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking) Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with those of Spain and Portugal to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

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• Latin America has high prevelance of lung diseases 

The lung diseases, emphysema and bronchitis, are a greater health problem in Latin America than previously thought, concludes a study published online today (Friday November 4, 2005) by The Lancet. High rates of tobacco smoking, the main risk factor for COPD, could explain the prevalence but altitude may also play a part, state the authors.

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• Clarke's evidence on BAT to be investigated for 'contradictions' 

The chairman of the Commons health committee is to investigate allegations that Kenneth Clarke gave false evidence to parliament about the activities of his company British American Tobacco.

Kevin Barron, Labour chairman of the health committee, said he would consult with David Hinchliffe, who was chairman in February 2000 when the Conservative leadership contender testified, denying claims that BAT was involved in international cigarette smuggling. Mr Barron said: "I shall be asking to study the record of the evidence Mr Clarke gave at the time, to see if there are any contradictions."

The Guardian disclosed yesterday that a letter written by BAT's lawyers admitted that certain allegations of BAT's involvement in smuggling were true. But five days after the letter was written, Mr Clarke, who is deputy chairman of BAT, denied the charges to MPs, describing them as "unfounded" and "nonsense".

Yesterday at Blackpool he sought to brush off the allegations. Addressing a packed lunchtime meeting, Mr Clarke likened himself to the man in the Hamlet cigar commercial. "When I am accused of heinous crimes I just light up a cigar ... It does save me from stress. I do not suffer from stress."

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• Briefing document in relation to the CPI Report of 31 January 2000 dealing with Latin America (PDF) 

1.1 The purpose of this paper is to provide a briefing in relation to the allegations made in the CPI Report of 31 January 2000 dealing with activities in Latin America . . . .

2.1 The essential allegation is that, in the period 1990 to 1995 (the period covered by the CP I Report), British American Tobacco and its subsidiaries sought to control and exploi t smuggling as part of a world-wide marketing strategy to increase revenue . . .

3.3 A market developed in smuggled cigarettes and consistent with its general policy, and with a view to securing market share, British American Tobacco acted, within the law, on the basis that its brands would be found alongside those of its competitors in the smuggled as well as the legitimate market . . . .

3.10 Although British American Tobacco did not instigate the smuggling of its brands into Colombia, and although its policy throughout the 1990s has been to work toward th e establishment of an entirely legitimate business there, the evidence is that it used DNP channels to grow its market share in Colombia and to establish itself there . That fact does not detract from what is said above given the wide compass of the statement that British American Tobacco "acts within the law on the basis that its brands will be found available alongside those of its competitors in the smuggled as well as the legitimate market". However, the use of DNP channels in Colombia needs to be borne in mind when responding to the Select Committee's questions.

3.11 Although it is true that DNP can have different meanings, it would appear that in Colombia and other Latin American countries it does connote smuggled goods .

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• HEALTH: Poisoned Lives: the Price Of Tobacco Farming 

For the world's anti-tobacco movement, a small town in southern Brazil has become a symbol of a silent tragedy unfolding among communities which have turned to tobacco farming for a livelihood.

What has contributed to such symbolism is the ''very high rate of suicides'' in that town, Venancio Aires, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, says Angela Cordiero, an agronomist and a Brazilian activist in the movement. While the national average in Brazil has been three suicides per 100,000 people, in Venancio Aires it is seven times higher - 21 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

For Cordeiro, the suicide rate in Venancio Aires can be traced to the ''dangerous pesticides'' used by the tobacco farmers in that area.

''The organophosphate pesticides that farmers use in the tobacco fields have chemicals known to affect the neurological system. They often get depressed after exposure and try to kill themselves,'' she adds. . . .

Studies have revealed that a majority of those who committed suicide in Venancio Aires were farmers, and they had killed themselves during the months when organophosphate pesticides were used extensively in the tobacco fields.

For the tobacco-control movement, such a disturbing phenomenon is only one of a litany of problems that has been plaguing those who work on tobacco farms. In this country, for instance, the plight of the Huichol Indians working in the tobacco fields in the western state of Nayarit has become a cause for concern.

Says Patricia Diaz-Romo, a Mexican anti-tobacco activist, the most glaring as been the impact of pesticide poisoning on the pregnant Huichol Indian women who have worked in the fields.

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• 700,000 Health Professionals in the Americas Pledge To Combat Tobacco 

More than 520 health professional and support organizations from throughout the Americas are joining together to support tobacco control activities and to advocate for governments to ratify and implement the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The organizations have more than 700,000 members and workers in 30 countries.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) invited health professional organizations to sign the "Declaration of the Americas" to increase awareness and motivate action by health professionals to mark World No Tobacco Day, May 31.

This year's theme, "Health Professionals Against Tobacco," calls on health professionals and their associations to be on the front lines of efforts to reduce tobacco use, which claims more than a million lives every year in the Americas.

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• PAHO Director Urges Countries to Sign Tobacco Treaty Prior to June 29th Deadline 

With just one day left before the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) closes for signature, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Mirta Roses, today urged PAHO's Member States to take advantage of the small window of opportunity remaining to sign the treaty.

Most Latin American countries have signed the FCTC, which was adopted unanimously by the World Health Assembly in May of 2003. However, just over half of the Caribbean PAHO Member States have done so or are scheduled to sign before the deadline at midnight on Tuesday, June 29.

Current signatories in the Caribbean are Belize, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados are scheduled to sign the treaty today at United Nations headquarters in New York, while Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia have indicated their intention to sign by tomorrow's deadline. The only Caribbean countries that have not yet committed to signing the FCTC are the Bahamas, Dominica, and Guyana.

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• Secondhand Smoke Found in 94 Percent of Public Places in Latin America 

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Pan American Health Organization and other institutions have found carcinogenic secondhand smoke in a significant number of public places throughout Latin America. Smoke-free, indoor environments are one way nonsmokers can avoid premature death and disease as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke. The scientific evidence supports the 2001 Pan American Health Organization’s Smoke-Free Americas initiative, which was established to achieve smoke-free, indoor environments in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study researchers documented the extent and location of exposure to smoke in indoor locations in seven capital cities. They also identified the most critical areas for control. The study, “Secondhand Tobacco Smoke in Public Places in Latin America, 2002-2003” was published in the June 9, 2004, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

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• More Latvian teenagers lighting up, adding to country's tobacco-tinged reputation 

A survey released Tuesday found a sharp gain in smoking by teenage girls in Latvia, a country with a reputation as one of Europe's heaviest users of tobacco.

According to the report, 41 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls between 13-15 consider themselves regular smokers, smoking at least one cigarette per week. Ninety percent said they smoked at least once in their lives.

"The smoking rate among girls here is now higher than among adult women and that's particularly troubling," said Iveta Pudle of the Welfare Ministry's Health Promotion Center. . .

The report is part of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey. Latvia was the first European country to release results of the survey.

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• Tobacco Conspiracy? 

British American Tobacco (BAT) has been accused by the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) of hiring scientists throughout the Caribbean and Latin America to deceive the public about the link between second-hand smoke and lung cancer and other diseases. . .

When contacted by the Barbados Advocate, BAT referred this newspaper to its web site which stated that it has not been established that exposure to ETS genuinely increases the risk of non-smokers developing lung cancer, heart disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Still, the company stated that it wanted to work with Government and other interested parties to support initiatives that aim to reduce exposure to ETS. . .

One of the other findings of the report was that BAT proposed seminars and individual journalist briefings in the English-speaking Caribbean, including Barbados, with the goal of tilting journalists' opinion in favour of the industry. . .

Research by this newspaper revealed that BAT came under fire during that last media forum in 2000

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• PAHO: Tobacco Firms Lied to Latin Americans 

Several transnational tobacco companies hired scientists throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to deceive the public about the link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer and other serious diseases, according to a report released this week by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional office of the World Health Organization.

But the companies neglected to inform the public about their connection with the scientists. They instead used consultants who agreed to portray themselves as independent, objective researchers while parroting the views of the tobacco industry in their liaisons with the media and various government officials, the report indicates.

In fact, tobacco executives circulated a memo that stated: "I cannot stress strongly enough the absolute necessity for the industry to have no direct contact with these scientists that are part of the program...All contact, as previously explained, must be carried out through (a Washington, DC-based law firm)."

This is just one of the components of the tobacco industry's deceptive campaigns that were carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last decade, according to PAHO's "Profits Over People" report.

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It is not constructive to dwell on events that (occurred) several years ago. It is more productive to focus on what we can and should be doing to address society's legitimate concerns about tobacco. Our approach today is to support sensible government regulations.
Jayme Fowler, Philip Morris' communications director for Latin America, in response to the PAHO report "Profits over People.

We are and always have been in favor of sensible tobacco regulation . . . [T]here is no convincing evidence that the substance of any work or the opinion of any doctor or scientist has been altered or affected by tobacco industry influence
Unidentified BAT spokesperson, in response to the PAHO report "Profits over People.