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• Mexico DF: Smoke-Free City Case Study (PDF) 

1.1.1 On 26 February 2008, the Legislative Assembly of Mexico DF (Federal District) passed a law Ð La Ley de Protecci—n a la Salud de los No Fumadores [Law for the Protection of the Health of Non-Smokers] Ð requiring all indoor workplaces and public places in the city to be smoke-free. On the same day, the Mexican Senate passed the federal General Law on Tobacco Control that also addresses exposure to second-hand smoke. However, the national law is not sufficiently protective as it allows indoor designated smoking areas.

1.2 The Study

1.2.1 This case study demonstrates how Mexico DF developed and implemented its smoke-free agenda, discusses the impact of its smoke-free law and identifies lessons learned. Information was gathered from interviews with key informants (listed in the Acknowledgments), as well as available studies and documentation. . . .

7.2 Success Factors

7.2.1 Political champions. The active role taken by key politicians and senior civil servants -- both Members of the DF Legislative Assembly and from the DF Ministry of Health -- in steering the law through the legislative process and engaging with a high-profile media debate was vital in achieving a comprehensive smoke-free law.

7.2.2 Strong, knowledgeable, and coordinated NGOs support. The presence of informed, influential and dedicated tobacco control advocates able to support the political process, lead campaigns and to be flexible and responsive to a rapidly changing policy environment was also an essential ingredient of success. Their willingness to work together combined with knowledge of the rationale for smoke-free laws and of good practice from elsewhere, as well as their links to key decision-makers, significantly boosted the prospects of a successful outcome.

7.2.3 Coordinated and well-funded communications efforts. The DF experience reinforced experience from elsewhere in the world of the value of having coherent campaigns to inform and reassure workplaces about the reasons for the law, what the law means for them, and how it will work in practice. At the same time, it highlighted the benefits of using promotional campaigns and the media to raise awareness of the dangers of exposure to second-hand smoke, counter opponents' arguments and mobilize support for comprehensive smoke-free legislation. Ensuring consistency in the primary messages, emphasizing the health rationale and explaining that the law was not anti- smoker were key.

7.2.4 Adequate funding and technical support. Funding was available to NGOs and government to ensure paid staff working full-time on the campaign, and sufficient budgets to run media campaigns and other supportive activities. The funding was complemented by high-level technical support from international experts when needed, which supported in-country activists to move more quickly and effectively.

7.2.5 Clear, comprehensive law. Successful implementation and perceived high levels of compliance were greatly aided by having a law that prohibits smoking in all enclosed workplaces and public spaces, with very few exemptions. Mexico DF's law confirms experience elsewhere that such laws are clearer, simpler to draft, fairer and easier to enforce. The DF law also meets the criteria favoured by most of the hospitality sector for smoke-free laws that cover all premises.

7.2.6 Readiness to respond to industry arguments, and research to support arguments. Many of the issues and  arguments raised during the debates about the law were similar to those that arise in almost every place when smoke- free legislation is considered. The ability of smoke free advocates to tap into tried and tested arguments -- particularly where they were backed up by local or, at least, national research -- was a major advantage. . . .

7.4.2 While challenges remain, the smoke- free law is a major public health achievement for Mexico DF and will generate significant health benefits for citizens in the years ahead. The Mexico DF smoke-free experience is an example for others to learn from and to follow. The progress made with relatively modest resources, and in a short period of time, demonstrates the potential for other large cities in Latin America and elsewhere to adopt similar laws. 1 ValdŽs-Salgado R, Lazcano-Ponce EC, Hern‡ndez-çvila

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• Tax increase to boost tobacco black market?  

The rising price of tobacco is rippling across Arizona, forcing smokers to dig deeper for cash, sparking a potential black market boost and prompting an increase in calls to a state cessation help line.

The federal tax on a pack of cigarettes April 1 went from 39 cents to $1.01, which raises the price by about 10 percent. Cigar taxes went up 40 cents per stick, about a 10 percent increase for most smokers.

The tax on bulk tobacco - the roll-your-own type many smokers have turned to lately to save money - went from $1.09 per pound to $24. That's a 2,102 percent increase.

"They're creating a whole new black market, is what they're doing," said Dan Johnson, 54, a 30-year smoker who rolls his own. "There's going to be a lot more smuggling, that's for sure."

A couple of weeks ago, the price of a packet of "rollies" was about $1.25; now it's approaching $4, said Johnson, a day laborer who can ill afford the added cost.

The state Department of Revenue confirms that rising costs spur the black market.

Revenue Agent Jack Doyle told a state Bureau of Tobacco Education and Prevention Program committee in January that black market products from Mexico, Indian reservations and states with lower or no taxes take money from the state coffers. . . .

"If you can buy a carton of cigarettes in Mexico for $7 and sell it here for more, why not?"

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• Marlboro MXBeat Concert Series Defies Mexico's National Tobacco Control Law 

International and Mexican public health leaders today harshly criticized Philip Morris for its sponsorship of a four concert series entitled Marlboro MXBeat that unquestionably appeals to youth and violates Mexico's national tobacco control law and urged the Mexican government to act quickly to stop these concerts by enforcing its new national tobacco control law.

The Mexico national law explicitly prohibits the tobacco industry from any form of sponsorship that promotes tobacco products or tobacco use, yet the Marlboro MXBeat concerts are being heavily promoted and advertised by Philip Morris and the Mexican government has failed to act. The failure of the Mexican government to enforce its own laws puts Mexico's youth at risk and undermines respect for the rule of law.

The Philip Morris concerts are being heavily advertised and are taking place in four of the main cities in Mexico, including Guadalajara, Puebla, Monterrey and Mexico City. The concert series - which features a variety of music groups including the hugely popular N*E*R*D, Vampire Weekend, Girl Talk and recent Grammy nominee Nortec, appeal widely to Mexican youth. Promotional materials for the concerts include advertisements in magazines such as Chilango and GQ, billboards, a promotional Web site, and blogs.

The Marlboro MXBeat concerts and their promotion clearly violate Mexico's national General Tobacco Control Law

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• Días de humo 

Focused mainly in the development of the design of objects and the graph around the tobacco during century XX in Mexico, Days of smoke in addition it will show to historical antecedents as far as the consolidation and the social assent of a culture of the tobacco. A trip towards the past, towards which today already it is history and that allows us to generate stories and memories in nostalgia, around those days of smoke…

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• Mexico City smokers enjoy a bit of nostalgia 

For Mexico City’s smokers, who were recently deprived of the pleasure of enjoying their habit in restaurants, bars, offices and other public places, an exhibition celebrating the pleasure and history of tobacco might feel like someone’s blowing smoke in their faces.

But organizers of “Dias de Humo” (The Days of Smoking), which opened last week at the Museo Soumaya, say the intention is to celebrate smoking’s place in history, art and culture, not to encourage the habit.

Pre-Hispanic pipes, personalized cigarette holders and snuffboxes, newspaper articles, old television ads and publicity posters tell what is more than just the history of tobacco.

Some of Mexico’s most famed artists and public figures, such as José Guadalupe Posada, Frida Kahlo and José Clemente Orozco, are included in an exhibit that is really a kind of history of Mexico, using the tobacco industry and smoking culture as the organizing thread.

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Two laws target smokers in Mexico City  

Smokers and restaurateurs and other business owners in Mexico City on Wednesday were debating the ramifications of not one but two groundbreaking laws seeking to curb smoking. Some were scratching their heads over which they would have to obey, and many others expressed skepticism that either would be effectively enforced.

"I'm sure that neither . . . is going to succeed," said Andres Romero Olivares, a 47-year-old accountant, who saw the restrictions as the wrong solution to the nation's health woes.

On Tuesday, the Mexican Senate passed nationwide restrictions on smoking in workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public enclosures, requiring stiff fines for violations and possible 36-hour jail stints for smokers who refuse to comply. That measure, already passed by Congress' lower house, is expected to be signed into law by President Felipe Calderon.

The same day, Mexico City's legislative assembly approved even tougher rules for the capital that would ban indoor smoking in public places. The law tightened restrictions passed last fall, which had allowed bars and restaurants to set aside sections for smokers. . . .

The local measure goes further than the national rules by requiring smoke-free workplaces, restaurants, bars and other indoor public places. Smoking will be allowed only on open-air terraces or in other outdoor areas.

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• Mexican Senate Approves Anti-Smoking Law 

Mexico's Senate approved a law Tuesday that would ban smoking in workplaces, public buildings and public transportation across the country, allowing it in private businesses only if special, ventilated smoking areas are set up.

Mexico City's legislature went even further, modifying a previous anti-smoking measure to eliminate even such special smoking areas in the city's bars and restaurants.

The federal law was approved by a 101-5 vote, with two abstentions. It has already passed the lower house of Congress, and only awaits enactment by the president. Mexico City's law will take effect one month after it is published by the city's mayor. . . .

The new law would also ban a common practice in Mexico in which street vendors sell individual cigarettes

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• Mexican Congress Approves Measure to Restrict Smoking (Update1) 

Mexico's Senate approved a law that requires restaurants and bars to set up non-smoking areas and limits advertising by tobacco companies.

Under the measure, businesses must get a license to sell tobacco and all enclosed public places have 180 days to create non-smoking sections. The law also prohibits tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events and will only allow ads in areas where children aren't present, such as bars.

The bill, endorsed by President Felipe Calderon, aims to eliminate youth smoking and reduce the potential harm of second-hand smoke. About 60,000 Mexicans die every year from diseases associated with smoking, said Ernesto Saro, president of the Senate's Health Committee.

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• Mexican Congress Approves Bill to Restrict Smoking, Tobacco Ads 

Mexico's Senate approved a law today that requires restaurants and bars to set up non-smoking areas and limits advertising by tobacco companies.

Under the measure, businesses must get a license to sell tobacco and all enclosed public places have 180 days to create non-smoking sections. The law also prohibits tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events and will only allow ads in areas where children aren't present, such as bars.

The bill, endorsed by President Felipe Calderon, aims to eliminate youth smoking and reduce the potential harm of second-hand smoke. About 60,000 Mexicans die every year from diseases associated with smoking, said Ernesto Saro, president of the Senate's Health Committee.

``We don't want it to affect the children, the teenagers,'' said Saro, a member of Calderon's National Action Party.

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• Mexico City Smokers Violating Law May Face Jail, Reforma Says 

Mexico City smokers who violate a new law that bars lighting up in restaurants and other public areas may face jail, Reforma newspaper reported.

The smoking ban was approved by a local legislative committee yesterday and may win final approval today, the Mexico City-based newspaper said. The bill sets fines of 525 pesos ($49) to 1,577 pesos and establishes that third-time violators will face 36 hours in jail, Reforma said.

The measure bars smoking in all indoor public places, including restaurants, bars, offices and schools, the newspaper said. Hotels will be allowed to offer smoking areas, Reforma said.

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