Brazil to Build Tobacco Testing Lab for Latin America / Brasil vai construir laboratório
Monday, September 21st, 2009Brazil’s National Sanitary Vigilance Agency (Anvisa) announced today that in 2010 it will construct a Control Laboratory for Tobacco-Derived Products on Ilha do Fundão, the artifical island home to “University City” and the Federal University of RJ (UFRJ) in the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro. The R$8 million Laboratory will be the reference center for […]
A Smokeless Rio?
Monday, August 17th, 2009If you’ve ever been to Rio de Janeiro (RJ), you know that it’s not exactly a nonsmoker’s paradise. Despite all the health warnings and studies issued over the years, quite a bit of smoking still occurs in public places within the state. Not for much longer. Or at least that’s the stated legislative intent of […]
World No Tobacco Day 09: Mexico Issues Regulation
Monday, June 1st, 2009How did Mexico’s Health Secretary José Ángel Córdova Villalobos commemorate World No-Tobacco Day in 2009? He issued the implementing regulation for the 2008 General Law on Tobacco Control (LGCT). Among other things, the regulation covers the architectural design of nonsmoking areas, the ban on sales of tobacco products to minors, and the presence of health […]
World No Tobacco Day 09: Brazilian Research Shows Pictorial Warnings Work
Thursday, May 28th, 2009The World Health Organization (WHO) chose the theme for the 2009 celebration of World No-Tobacco Day on 31 May as “Show the Truth. Picture Warnings Save Lives.” How is Brazil celebrating the day? The National Cancer Institute (INCA) released the preliminary results of a study they say shows that picture warnings on cigarette packs are […]
SP Anti-Smoking Law Survives Its First Court Challenge
Thursday, May 14th, 2009What a week for tobacco control in São Paulo state! Last week Governor Serra signed a tough anti-smoking law he requested from the state assembly just nine months ago. Within days the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (Abrasel) filed in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) a direct challenge to the law’s constitutionality, together with […]
São Paulo Study Shows Passive Smokers with Elevated CO Levels
Friday, February 20th, 2009A recent study conducted by São Paulo State (SP) Secretary of Health (SES) found that 35.9% of non-smokers regularly exposed to tobacco smoke have carbon monoxide levels in them comparable to those found in smokers. The study looked at 1,310 persons during smoking prevention actions promoted by SES during 2008 in open-air environments, such as […]
SP Governor Proposes Very Tough Smoking Ban
Thursday, September 4th, 2008On August 28 — Brazil’s National Day to Combat Tobacco — José Serra, the Governor of the state with the biggest market in the nation, São Paulo, sent to the state legislature a bill would ban smoking in areas of collective use, whether public or private. The bill looks to be one of the toughest […]
Tobacco Use in Individuals with Severe Mental Illnesses / Tabagismo em indivíduos com transtornos mentais graves
Sunday, July 29th, 2007A study* has just been published in the August edition of the Brazilian journal Revista de Saúde Pública (“Public Health Magazine”). I’m mentioning it here in the The Temas Blog out of the conviction that there will be some journalist somewhere (or perhaps many) who, perhaps to get senstional headlines, will misinterpret or mis-report this […]
Youth Smoking in Mexico / Tabaquismo y los jovenes en México
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Synopsis in English: The Mexican Youth Institute (IMJ), a government-backed body created in 1999 to focus on issues facing Mexicans between the ages of 12 and 29, has released in time for World No Tobacco Day (31 May) the tobacco-related results of a 2005 national survey of 12,000 Mexican youth regarding a wide variety of […]