By Shasta Darlington
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 01 (Reuters) - Brazil sent a bill to Congress on
Wednesday proposing that Latin America's biggest country ban all tobacco
advertising and sports sponsorship and hike cigarette taxes in a bid to prevent
kids from getting hooked on smoking.
To commemorate World No-Tobacco Day, the Health Ministry signed off on the
bill and released its first major study on smoking in Brazil, which predicts
higher taxes could cut smoking over time by up to 12%. "The approval of this
bill will be very important to our fight," Jacob Kligerman, general director of
the ministry's National Cancer Institute, said at a press conference.
Officials hope that by hiking prices and prohibiting advertising on
television and at popular sports events like car races they can discourage
youths from smoking.
Brazilians smoke only half as much as US residents on a per capita basis,
but officials in the country of 165 million people are alarmed by the number of
youths lighting up. Brazil is home to 2.7 million smokers between the ages of 5
and 19.
"This is a fundamental question for a country if it doesn't want its
children dying of cancer," said Vera Luiza da Costa Silva, coordinator of the
ministry's smoking prevention programmes.
Because Brazil is a low-cost tobacco producer, local cigarettes are some of
the cheapest in the world at $1.62 a carton, including a 74% tax.
The ministry said that with a 15% price increase through higher taxes,
smoking would drop off between 1.5 and 3% in the short term and between 6 and
12% in the long term.
The ministry has also launched a new advertising campaign that spotlights
the death from lung cancer of Wayne McLaren, a former model for a famous brand
of cigarettes.
In the ad, one horseman asks another as they ride into the sunset "You know
that cowboy from the cigarette ads? He died from cancer."
Worldwide, about 3.4 million people die from smoking each year, according to
the World Health Organisation.
