ARGENTINA: People react to smoking ban in all enclosed public spaces including bars and restaurants

Record ID: 446598

  • Title: ARGENTINA: People react to smoking ban in all enclosed public spaces including bars and restaurants
  • Date: 6th October 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) NON-SMOKER, HORACIO BELLO, SAYING: "The law doesn't limit the right to smoke for those that want to, it just is a form of respecting those that have decided not to contaminate themselves with cigarettes. Therefore it seems to me to be a suitable balance." (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SMOKER, ALVARO CARRERA, SAYING: "To combat smoking in bars, while outside it full of cars just fumigating us, well it just doesn't make much sense."
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA39SD7XQSA9AQLIO0NAT2VKY95
  • Story Text: The smoky bars and cafes of Argentina's capital, where tango lyrics celebrate the "sensual pleasure" of a cigarette, may never be the same now that a tough smoking ban has taken effect.
    In a country where about a third of people smoke, the new ban prohibits lighting up in public spaces smaller than 100 square meters (1,100 sq feet), with cafe owners facing fines of up to 2,000 pesos ($640) if they allow customers to flout the law.
    Under the new rules, which follow similar bans in other Argentine cities, bigger establishments will have to provide a separate, contained area for smoking customers.
    Many people support the new rules, which fall far short of the nationwide ban imposed this year in neighboring Uruguay by the government of cancer doctor President Tabare Vazquez -- the toughest such ban in Latin America.
    "The law doesn't limit the right to smoke for those that want to, it just is a form of respecting those that have decided not to contaminate themselves with cigarettes. Therefore it seems to me to be a suitable balance," one non-smoker Horacio Bello said.
    Others, meanwhile, were highly unimpressed.
    "To combat smoking in bars, while outside it full of cars just fumigating us, well it just doesn't make much sense," one smoker Alvaro Carrera said.
    Ireland imposed the world's first nationwide smoking ban in 2004, and now in even Cuba - the island famed for its fine cigars - smoking is prohibited in most public places.
    However many expect that Argentines will take a long time to break their habits. Office workers spilled out on the streets in downtown Buenos Aires to get their lunch hour puff on Monday (October 2, 2006), despite the chilly, out-of-season downpour in the capital.
    But despite some grumbling, within public areas Argentines on the whole seem to be obeying the new law which came into effect on Sunday (October 1, 2006).
    Municipal inspectors which trawled various bars, cafes and call centers said they were pleased with what they had seen.
    "The businesses have been receiving us really well on this second day we have found, at least in this terminal. In one bar there was an architect designing a space for smokers. I think that at least in this place the people are complying with the law," municipal inspector Monica Cortizas said.
    The Argentine smoking ban falls behind a worldwide anti-tobacco legislation push that started with smoking bans the U.S. states of Florida and California in 2003.
    The World Health Organisation reports that tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world and is currently responsible for five million deaths each year.
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