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Smoking ban sucks life out of cantinas 

The downturn began last month, when Mexico City became the latest capital to join the global trend of imposing smoking bans in public places. The air in the city’s traditional watering holes may be cleaner, but there is growing concern that the new rules may prove fatal for one of the city’s traditional symbols of popular culture.

“Cantinas are taking the brunt of this,” says Daniel Loeza, vice-president of Canirac, which represents almost 250,000 restaurants and bars across the country. “It is very hard to divorce cigarettes from drink and I don’t see a bright future for the city’s traditional cantinas.”

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, a lot of other food and drink outlets are also suffering from the ban. Mr Loeza says that Canirac members have reported a notable decline in sales, while plans to open new businesses have been put on ice. “Business has definitely fallen off,” he says.

Many of the more modern restaurants and bars are converting terraces, gardens and balconies into smoking areas.

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• Anti-tobacco law enacted in Mexico 

A new anti-tobacco law that went into effect last month throughout Mexico, prohibits smoking in public areas such as offices, schools, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, according to Baja California's state health department. However, there can be designated smoking areas, but they have to be in an open-air area or an isolated area.

Alberto Mejia, manager of The Green Door bar in Algodones, said the business removed all ashtrays from tables and put up no-smoking signs to let clients know about the new law.

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墨西哥禁烟法生效 

墨西哥卫生部长何塞·安赫尔·科尔多瓦·比利亚洛沃斯２８日表示，墨西哥政府希望当天生效的《烟草控制总法》能使全国吸烟人数减少５％至１５％。

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Tobacco One, Inc. Announces Completion of Acquisition of Mexican Cigarette Brand Rojo's 

Tobacco One, Inc. (Pink Sheets: TBCO) announces it has finalized the purchase of the Rojo’s brand cigarettes from Mexico City businessman Marvin Feldman. On July 29th, 2008, Tobacco One finished its 30-day due diligence period and took physical possession of the Rojo’s brand cigarette, trademark, employees, inventory and customer bases.

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• Wal-Mart Mexico to Distribute Tobacco One's Newly Acquired Rojo's Cigarette Line 

Tobacco One, Inc. (Pink Sheets:TBCO) is pleased to announce that it has obtained authorization to place its newly acquired Rojo's brand cigarettes and proprietary cigarette displays at 143 Wal-Mart Supercenter stores and 63 of Wal-Mart's Superama stores throughout the country of Mexico.

Tobacco One will install approximately 3,000 cigarette displays, one at each check-out location, within the Wal-Mart Mexico organization.

"The installation of our proprietary cigarette displays and the placement of the Rojo's cigarette brand within this prestigious organization is an impressive accomplishment for Tobacco One and its management team," said Shawn Ulizio, President, Tobacco One.

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Harvard Hires Former Mexican Health Minister as Dean (Update2)  

Harvard University has hired Julio Frenk, the former Mexican health minister, to become the next dean of its School of Public Health.

Frenk is expected to start the job in January, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university said in a statement. He will succeed Barry Bloom, dean for the past decade, who will become a distinguished service professor and continue research into global health.

Frenk, 54, is a senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. In 2006, he was identified as a leading candidate to be director-general of the Geneva-based World Health Organization by the editor of the British medical journal Lancet. Margaret Chan, a Chinese infectious disease specialist, got the job. . . .

In 2004, Frenk struck a deal with British American Tobacco Plc and Philip Morris of Mexico, a joint venture of Carlos Slim and Altria Group Inc., which agreed not to raise cigarette taxes in return for $400 million for social programs. Anti-tobacco groups criticized the arrangement.

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Tobacco One, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Popular Mexican Cigarette Brand 

Tobacco One, Inc. (Pink Sheets: TBCO) announced today that they have purchased a regionally popular cigarette brand from a Mexico City businessman for cash plus common stock. The previous owner will stay on as a consultant to Tobacco One, Inc. for a minimum two-year term.

The brand was first introduced in Mexico City in 2006. It remained a regional brand until recently when Tobacco One's international marketing team finished a three-month feasibility study focusing on national expansion and consumer acceptance. During this study, Tobacco One in partnership with the Mexico City marketing firm Integra Marketing, S.A. de C.V. obtained numerous commitments that will result in expanded distribution nationwide.

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• Smoking ban sucks life out of cantinas ($$) 

Victor Ramírez has a plastic blue apron tied tight around his wiry frame as he waits in the sun for lunchtime customers, just as he has done for decades.

But even though the afternoon is advancing, the 20-odd tables inside the “Cantina The Return” are laid and the television sets bolted to its peach-coloured walls are blaring a normally irresistible cocktail of soaps and sport, only a couple of people have turned up.

“Things are bad,” admits the 59-year-old. “Very bad.”

The downturn began last month, when Mexico City became the latest capital to join the global trend of imposing smoking bans in public places. The air in the city’s traditional watering holes may be cleaner, but there is growing concern that the new rules may prove fatal for one of the city’s traditional symbols of popular culture.

“Cantinas are taking the brunt of this,” says Daniel Loeza, vice-president of Canirac, which represents almost 250,000 restaurants and bars across the country. “It is very hard to divorce cigarettes from drink and I don’t see a bright future for the city’s traditional cantinas.”

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, a lot of other food and drink outlets are also suffering from the ban.

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Briefs 3-Final touchline cigarette beckons for coach La Volpe  

Soccer - Former Mexico coach Ricardo La Volpe, one of the few coaches who still smokes on the touchline, will have to curb his habit next season.

The Mexican Football Federation has announced a smoking ban on and around the pitch and "technical areas" in stadiums which will take effect from the 2008/09 season. Argentine La Volpe has inspired a revival at Monterrey since taking charge in January.

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• Cientos de mexicanos recurren la 'ley antitabaco' de la capital 

Hundreds of Mexican today resorted the law that it prohibits to the past smoke in spaces public in the Federal District from 3 of April, by initiative of a group of legislators of the local congress of the capital of Mexico.

The deputy of Partido Socialdemócrata (PSD) Enrique Perez Correa, promoter of the initiative, said to Efe that the resources signed by the citizens will today get to add the thousand.

Sources of the PSD said to Efe that from the noon the plaintiffs go in groups of ten people to the courts of the administrative thing of the DF, in the south of the Mexican capital, to present/display the shelter resources.

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México: Interponen amparos contra ley antitabaco 

Advised by local legislators, more than 1,000 people they interposed shelters against a law antitobacco of the city of Mexico that it prohibits to smoke in any closed public space. (Publicity)

The local deputy Jorge Carlos Diaz, into the minority Social-Democratic Party, informed Monday that already prepares 3,000 shelters more than they will be presented/displayed before the 3 of May, when the term of a month is fulfilled to oppose the norm.

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Officer, someone is smoking! Mexico implements anti-smoking law  

"Officer! Officer! Someone is smoking on the table next to mine!" Starting Thursday, such messages started arriving on Mexico City's 066 emergency phone line, after a restrictive anti-smoking law entered into force.

The controversial legislation says that restaurants, bars, offices, hotels, universities and any other closed public spaces will have to be 100 percent smoke-free.

No separations between smokers and non-smokers will be allowed, and smoking will only be permitted in patios or open-air terraces, that is, in very few of the 35,000 such public establishments around the city.

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墨西哥开始实施《不吸烟者健康保护法》 

墨西哥首都墨西哥城３日起正式实施《不吸烟者健康保护法》，禁止在餐馆、酒吧、商店、地铁、办公室和医院等封闭的公共场所吸烟，让不吸烟者告别“二手烟”。

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Mexico City Gears Up for Smoking Ban 

A law banning smoking in virtually all public spaces in Mexico City -- exceptions include parks, soccer stadiums and outdoor seating areas -- goes into effect Thursday.

The owners of restaurant and bars, which can be fined or even closed if they ignore smoking in prohibited areas, are bristling at the regulations.

Daniel Loeza, vice president of the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Food Industry, said business owners do not want to police their clients.

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• Polluted Mexico City bans smoking 

Mexico City on Thursday banned cigarette smoking in all public places, from bars to office buildings, to reduce the amount of carcinogens inhaled by residents of the smog-filled capital.

The city, home to some 18 million people in the metropolitan area, is the latest large city around the world to pass a smoking ban to improve public health and protect nonsmokers from secondary smoke.

But not all Mexicans are happy about the prospect of smoke-free cantinas where tequila and cigarettes are traditionally enjoyed hand-in-hand.

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