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Tobacco in Chile 

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.

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