Tougher smoking law peeves Mexico City's puffing population
By S. Lynne Walker
April 6, 2004
MEXICO CITY ? 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.
"I think it's a form of racism to divide us from nonsmokers," huffed Citlali Soria, a 21-year-old university student, as she fired up a Marlboro in a
Mexico City bar. "Just like they can't divide white people and brown people and black people, they can't divide us."
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.
"If authorities want people to smoke less, there should be education and awareness programs, not restrictions on smoking areas," said chamber
president Rafael Saavedra.
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.
"The example set by this city will be a seed for what occurs in other cities," said Dr. Raul Sansores, who heads a pulmonary disease clinic at the
National Institute for Respiratory Illnesses. "This is an enormous advance in terms of legislation, a precedent in the fight for public health."
Yet lawmakers are finding it difficult to change the attitude of a public that has not yet accepted the risks of smoking.
"Everybody has the right to smoke," said Sergio Macias, 22, as he strummed a guitar in a Mexico City park. "What they're doing is a little bit
excessive."
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.
Federal officials say tobacco companies have been particularly aggressive in marketing to Mexicans, who spend about $1.50 per pack of cigarettes. At a
mariachi festival in Guadalajara, an attractive young woman handed out free Raleigh cigarettes and then lit them for music lovers. Mariana Medina, a
26-year-old Mexico City chef, said Marlboro has been sending her birthday and Christmas cards for the past two years.
"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."
The steady uptick in smoking is what prompted Mexico City legislators to pass tougher laws, said Efrain Morales, president of the city council's
commission on health and social assistance.
Morales, a marathon runner who quit smoking 15 years ago, said legislators are worried about the number of smoking-related deaths, which hit 54,000
nationwide last year.
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.
"If they really do it right, that's good," said 28-year-old Lorena Sanchez, who enjoys an occasional cigarette when she's drinking with friends. "But
maybe it will be like the seat-belt law. They monitored it for a while and then they quit paying attention to it."
Morales acknowledged city inspectors will face problems enforcing the law, particularly among taxi and bus drivers. But he insisted that "it is the
obligation of the government to do this. We have to create a greater social conscience."
The legislation is not aimed at forcing people to quit smoking, he said.
"They can keep smoking tobacco but in the areas where it is permitted. This law promotes respect for everyone."
That's not how restaurant and bar owners see it.
"We recognize that it is a responsibility of government officials to protect the health of citizens," said chamber president Saavedra. "But we live in
a country of freedoms, so in my opinion there should not be any legal restriction. We would rather there not be any kind of law, and that every person
interpret the needs of his clients."
If they are forced to implement the new law, bar and restaurant owners envision long lines of smoking customers waiting for tables while nonsmoking
tables sit empty.
Worse still, they worry about being turned into smoking police.
"When you go to a bar, you want to be treated well," said Eduardo Flores, manager of a popular Mexico City watering hole known as El Hijo Del Cuervo.
"If you want to be treated badly, you stay home with your wife." elgatoloco - 4-7-2004 at 03:25 PM
Classic! I wonder if Eduardo is single?
Quote:
"When you go to a bar, you want to be treated well," said Eduardo Flores, manager of a popular Mexico City watering hole known as El Hijo Del
Cuervo. "If you want to be treated badly, you stay home with your wife."
