HEALTH-LATIN AMERICA:
Tobacco Regulations as
Solid as Smoke
By Diego Cevallos*
MEXICO CITY (Tierramérica)
- Government funds to
fight tobacco use in
Latin America, which
kills one million people
each year, pale in
comparison to the health
costs of this epidemic
and receive only a small
portion of the tax
revenues from the
tobacco industry.
Most countries in the
region violate their own
commitments to ban
tobacco advertising and
to prohibit smoking in
public places, including
hospitals and schools.
Eliminating cigarette
ads and collecting hefty
taxes from the tobacco
industry are the best
ways to reduce
consumption, recommends
the World Health
Organisation (WHO) in
its Report on the Global
Tobacco Epidemic 2008.
Based on data from more
than 150 countries, the
document shows that tax
revenues from tobacco
sales around the world
are 500 times greater
than the amount spent on
fighting tobacco
addiction, which is a
cause of deadly
diseases.
Studies obtained by
Tierramérica
correspondents and
statistics from the WHO
indicate that, in Latin
America, Venezuela and
Brazil have the largest
annual budgets to fight
tobacco use, at about
4.6 million dollars
each. Paraguay has the
smallest budget: just
33,830 dollars.
Venezuela takes in 634
million dollars in
tobacco taxes each year,
and Brazil about 1.1
billion. By contrast,
Paraguay's tobacco tax
revenues amount to about
12 million dollars.
In Chile, a Latin
American leader in
regulating consumption
of tobacco, the
anti-smoking budget is
around one million
dollars, while tobacco
tax income is about 1.2
billion. The health
costs of smoking among
the population cost the
Chilean government 1.14
billion dollars a year.
Among the most
permissive countries is
Argentina, with 1.45
billion dollars in
tobacco tax revenues --
some 550 million more
than what it spends on
fighting tobacco use.
Unlike its neighbours,
it has no national law
on the matter, while
health-related costs
from smoking run to 2.2
billion dollars a year.
Mario Virgolini,
coordinator of the
Argentine Health
Ministry's tobacco
regulation programme,
told Tierramérica that
the difference between
tobacco tax revenues and
expenditures for the
health impacts of
smoking "clearly shows
that it costs society
more to deal with the
diseases than to avoid
consumption."
"The greatest cost,
which is immeasurable,
is the 40,000 deaths per
year caused by smoking"
in Argentina, he said.
Neighbouring Uruguay,
meanwhile, has won
recognition from the WHO
as the first country in
the Americas and the
third in the world to
ban smoking in enclosed
public spaces and work
areas. The national
measures have been in
place since 2006.
In the opinion of Luz
Reynales, head of
tobacco research at
Mexico's National Public
Health Institute, the
region's nations must be
"stronger" when it comes
to taxes on the tobacco
industry.
"Higher taxes are needed
to obtain sufficient
resources to attack the
epidemic," Reynales told
Tierramérica.
Through its tobacco
taxes, Mexico takes in
two billion dollars a
year, but spends three
billion on prevention
programmes and
health-related costs.
Tax as a percentage of
the sale price of
cigarettes varies in
Latin America and the
Caribbean, from 70
percent in Uruguay and
Venezuela to two percent
in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines.
The WHO has calculated
that an additional 10
percent hike in
cigarette prices could
cut consumption by four
percent. And if the
price went up 70
percent, it could
prevent a quarter of the
approximately 5.4
million annual
smoking-related deaths.
Most Latin American
countries have ratified
the WHO's Framework
Convention on Tobacco
Control, in force since
February 2005.
The international
convention calls on
countries to prohibit
advertising and
sponsorship by cigarette
companies of any
activity, discourage
industry interference in
public health policies,
ban tobacco companies
from targeting and
contacting young people,
and establish smoke-free
public spaces and
workplaces.
However, the WHO's 2008
report reveals that in
the Americas there is a
severe problem of
non-compliance.
Of the 35 countries
studied by the WHO, just
nine ban tobacco ads on
the radio and broadcast
television, and only
three (the Bahamas,
Brazil and Chile)
prohibit advertising in
newspapers and
magazines.
The study fails to
mention that Uruguay
enacted a ban on
advertising in all
media, except the
Internet, in March.
In Brazil and Chile,
tobacco ads are banned
on local Internet
portals, while
billboards and signs for
cigarettes are banned in
public areas in the
Bahamas, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
Aside from the Bahamas,
Brazil, Canada, Chile,
Guatemala, Uruguay and
Venezuela, the rest of
the countries in the
region allow the
distribution of
advertising by mail and
other media. Only in
Chile and Uruguay is it
prohibited to show
images of tobacco brands
on television programmes
and in films.
Tobacco companies are
banned from sponsoring
public events in the
Bahamas, Brazil, Canada,
Chile and Uruguay.
People are still free to
smoke in hospitals and
schools in 21 countries
in the Americas, and in
26 there are no smoking
regulations in
government buildings.
The Pan-American Health
Organisation's (PAHO)
online system for
tobacco information
reports that the
industry continues to
offer cigarettes free to
students.
In 2003, nearly 11
percent of young
Argentines said they had
received free cigarettes
from tobacco companies.
In Chile, the proportion
was 8.6 percent and in
Ecuador 11 percent in
2001, according to PAHO.
In Mexico, 10 percent of
young people reported
being offered free
cigarettes in 2005, and
in Brazil 7.8 percent in
2006.
(*Diego Cevallos is an
IPS correspondent.
Reporting contributed by
Daniela Estrada from
Chile, Humberto Márquez
from Venezuela, and
Marcela Valente from
Argentina. Originally
published by Latin
American newspapers that
are part of the
Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a
specialised news service
produced by IPS with the
backing of the United
Nations Development
Programme and the United
Nations Environment
Programme.)
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