| | |  Health & Beauty | June 2009 
Mexicans Lighting Up Despite Smoking Law
 Karla Fajardo - RUMBO de México
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June 23, 2009
| | Critics say smoking among women, and teens is on the rise. (Cuartoscuro/Marco Polo Guzman Hernandez) | |
An average of 165 Mexicans die every day from various illnesses associated with tobacco consumption even as Mexico´s health sector spends around $29 billion pesos a year to treat such ailments, reports say.
Members of the Mexico Without Tobacco Organization say Mexican authorities are making slow advances to curb tobacco use and therefore contradict the World Health Organization´s stipulations to control tobacco.
Felipe González Roldán, president of the Mexican tobacco group and specialist on respiratory diseases, said the federal government has failed to respond to alarming statistics that suggest 60,000 of the nation´s 16 million smokers die from the habit each year.
González calculates that one out of every eight deaths in Mexico is directly related to smoking, as about a half-million Mexicans die each year overall.
He said he was worried that smoking was on the rise, particularly among women. He said statistics show an increasing number of women who smoke are contracting cervical and breast cancers, thus increasing the death toll on female smokers.
González said that six years ago, the male-female smoking ratio was six-to-one. But polls in cities like Guadalajara, Tijuana and Cuernavaca suggest the ratio might be leveling out as the number of female smokers increases.
Last August, Mexico´s government approved a tobacco control law to be implemented by the Federal Sanitation Commission.
Commissioner Lucio Lastra says the law was sufficiently discussed by the federal Chamber of Deputies and was considered by legislators an adequate step forward when it was approved.
However, he said, certain measures will only be enforced through next year, including cigarette packs explicitly labeling smoking-related health concerns, which he says would be a clear step backwards compared with nations like Brazil, Venezuela, Chile Uruguay and Panama, who have all enforced the measure since 2001.
Lastra said measures to control tobacco use have begun in schools throughout the nation to combat the rise of teenage smokers, which today includes 11- and 12-year-olds.
Citizen´s organizations in Mexico have pointed out the loopholes of the tobacco control laws, contesting that it violates the standards and measures instituted worldwide, like establishing no-smoking zones in closed spaces.
Rafael Camacho Solís, who founded the Alliance Against Tobacco organization, said that many restaurants, bars and nightclubs in Mexico City have not complied with indoor smoking bans. He urged authorities to establish more watchdog organizations and tougher enforcement in various clubs and eateries in districts like Miguel Hidalgo, Cuauhtemoc, Cuajimalpa, Azcapotzalco, Tlalpan, Benito Juárez and Alvaro Obregón.
Anti-smoking organizations are also calling for traditional measures like increasing taxes on each pack of cigarettes, banning smoking completely from closed spaces and improving enforcement against smokers who violate non-smoking regulations.
Establishments found breaching the law could be fined up to 500,000 pesos ($46,000), or double that for a repeat offense.
Authorities have the right to close shops that sell tobacco to children.
Mexico counts around 13 million smokers among its population of 105 million.
All of Mexico´s 32 states are currently enforcing some level of smoking ban, but only Mexico City and the state of Tabasco are fully implementing anti-smoking measures. |
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