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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Mexico City Imposes Tougher Smoking Laws [04/07-2]
Excerpts from: Tougher smoking law peeves Mexico City's puffing population
By S. Lynne Walker San Diego Union-Tribune [04/06/04]
Call it a cigarette lover's paradise, this metropolis cloaked in a stinging,
brown haze. Rich and poor, young and old, intellectuals and day laborers all
have one thing in common: They love their smokes.
That's why they're fuming about a tough new no-smoking law, which says they can't light up in banks, hospitals, public buses, city offices, movie houses or concert halls.
Even more outrageous, they say, is the part of the law that forces bars and restaurants to set aside 30 percent of their tables for patrons who don't want to inhale cigarette fumes.
While smoking is losing popularity in the United States, it's on the rise in Mexico, where more than one-fourth of the population – at least 16.5 million people between the ages of 12 and 65 – regularly puff on cigarettes. In 1988, just 9 million Mexicans smoked.
The National Chamber of Restaurants is so upset about the new smoking regulations that more than 1,000 of its members went to court last month to block the law from being applied to their businesses when it goes into effect July 30.
By virtue of its size, Mexico City has the largest number of smokers in the nation.
People living along the U.S.-Mexico border are also heavy smokers, public health officials say. Members of the Mexico City Council, which voted 55-1 – with three absentions – in favor of the new law, believe they are the first in the nation to pass a sweeping smoking law. They hope their insistence on protecting residents from secondhand cigarette smoke will inspire other cities, such as Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana, to take similar steps.
Their decision is being lauded by top public health officials in a nation where even a huge number of doctors, an estimated 27 percent, smoke. Officials point out that even Mexican children are getting hooked on cigarettes. In 2002, a national census showed that 16 percent of smokers in urban areas were under 18.
Mexico's federal government had already blocked cigarette companies from advertising on TV. Since January 2002, the craggy, range-riding Marlboro Man has been banished to magazine advertisements and billboards. The federal government has also opened 150 clinics nationwide over the past three years to help people kick the habit.
"It is obvious the tobacco industry is casting its eyes on developing countries," said Dr. Sansores, who has rejected overtures by tobacco companies for meetings. "Our answer had been we want nothing to do with them. They want people to keep smoking."
Although the city has had no-smoking laws on the books since 1990, the new legislation is more stringent. Bars and restaurants can't simply designate a few tables as no-smoking areas. Instead, they must build walls or use outdoor patios to separate no-smoking areas from smokers. Mexico City's Health Department has formed teams of inspectors to make sure the law is being followed, Morales said. They also plan to hand out no-smoking signs to the city's 36,000 restaurants and innumerable bars. Those caught violating the law will be fined up to $415 for the first offense. For the second offense, they'll face closure.
Customers who refuse to stop smoking in a nonsmoking area face a fine of roughly $42 for their first offense. A second offense would send them to jail for 36 hours.
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