Thank you for Smoking

At the beginning of November, Brazilian Andrea Martini, Argentinean Alejandro Riomayor, Colombian Jaime Humberto Delgado, and British Michael Hardy and Jack Bowles met in Rio de Janeiro. No details of the meeting were filtered to the press, and a spokesperson of the British American Tobacco (BAT) pointed out to America Economia that it was a "routine meeting" between their regional managers. The only certainty was that, if any of them smoked, they had to go out to a specific area to light a cigarette.

In Brazil, smoking in closed places is forbidden, as well as cigarette publicity, and the sponsorship of sports or cultural events by tobacco companies. Since the signing of the WHO Framework Agreement in 2005, all the governments in the region are stepping up their legal artillery against the industry. Uruguay went the farthest when in April it prohibited the exhibition of packs of cigarettes in the points of sale.

"This goes beyond cigarettes", says US citizen Lezak Shallat, coordinator of the organizationChile Libre de Tabaco(Chile free of Tobacco). "It is all about protecting people from the advertising blitz of junk food and other products that affect health."

For Shallat, the equation is simple: the strongest regulations affect consumption, which means "less cancer, fewer heart attacks, etc." But is it  really the case in Latin America?

See the complete article in its original source  (in Spanish)