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    Brazil Bans Electronic Cigarettes

    Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

    It looks like Brazilian authorities have concluded that the World Health Organization (WHO) is right about this product and its promotion. The National Sanitary Vigilance Agency (ANVISA) just announced a ban on the trade within, and import into, Brazil of  electronic smoking devices, sometimes called e-cigarettes, e-ciggy and e-cigar, among other monikers.  The ban particularly […]

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    Trinidad and Tobago Takes the Caribbean Lead in Tobacco Control

    Friday, July 31st, 2009

    Trinidad and Tobago’s Health Minister presented a pretty tough tobacco control bill in Parliament the other day, and seems confident it will emerge as a law in just a few months with little watering down.  It appears that Trinidad and Tobago will take the lead in CARICOM’s recent pledge to ban smoking in public places […]

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    New Pharmaceutical Labeling Rules Proposed in Brazil

    Friday, April 10th, 2009

    Brazil’s National Sanitary Vigilance Agency (ANVISA) is proposing changes in package labeling rules for pharmaceuticals sold in that country (as set out in ANVISA Resolution RDC 333/03) with a view to making pack labels more informative to consumers.  For example, the proposals released for public consultation (until 11 May) would make medicines with a sedative […]

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    EPC “Awards” Manipulative Food Advertising to Children

    Thursday, March 12th, 2009

    As part of its efforts to get Mexican authorities to regulate the advertising of food and beverages to children, and to hold industry accountable to its commitments under its recently adopted national code of self-regulation on the issue, the consumer group The Power of the Consumer (EPC) recently released what it calls “awards” recognizing “the […]

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    Argentina Deepens Restrictions on Alcohol

    Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

    President Cristina Fernandez issued an implementing decree for the 12-year old Alcohol Act, deepening restrictions on alcohol beverage advertising and consumption and obliging social security services to treat the social consequences of its consumption. The signing ceremony was attended by the Ministers expected to implement the rules: Health, Graciela Ocaña; Labor, Carlos Tomada; Justice, Anibal […]

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    WHO Takes Aim at Alcohol

    Saturday, January 24th, 2009

    The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Executive Board (EB), meeting in Geneva this week, gave the WHO Secretariat the green light to prepare a global strategy on alcohol consumption. The EB is, as the name implies, WHO’s executive arm, giving direction to the Organization between its annual governing body meetings, the World Health Assembly (WHA) held […]

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    MERCOSUR Adopts Guidelines on Promotion, Advertising & Marketing of Pharmaceuticals

    Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

    I’ve said here many times that Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations tend to take seriously the recommendations, guidelines and other soft norms of the World Health Organization (WHO) on any issue involving public health and/or the environment, and I’ve tried to provide a few examples where WHO work has translated into national laws and […]

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    “Cereal Offenses” in LAC

    Sunday, December 28th, 2008

    If you have kids and read the labels of foods you shop for or buy, you probably know well the struggle to avoid buying breakfast cereals that are not loaded with sugar and/or sodium (salt).  Sometimes even when you avoid the obvious culprits (after all, if the name is “frosted,” most of us can guess!), […]

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    An Alcohol Control Bill for Uruguay

    Friday, September 12th, 2008

    Uruguay’s National Drug Board (Junta Nacional de Drogas – JND), Inter-sectoral Coordinator on Alcohol Policies (CIPA) and Ministry of Public Health (MSP) recently presented to the press and public an unusually tough (for a Latin American nation, at least) alcohol control bill that they are sending to the national legislature. A Law, Not a Decree […]

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    Chile contempla terminar incentivos económicos en venta de medicamentos con receta

    Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

    Desde el Senado de Chile: Proponen terminar con los incentivos económicos en venta de medicamentos con receta Moción en tal sentido fue presentada por los senadores Soledad Alvear y Mariano Ruiz-Esquide quienes persigue que la gente no compre medicamentos que no necesita o que pueden dañar la salud por ser mal empleados Los senadores Soledad […]

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