Hello again. Now I will post about the industry estrategies in Brazil and our efforts to face it. Brazil has 183,987,291 inhabitants (IBGE, 2007), and presents an enormous young population - 51.1 million people aged between 15 and 29 years, which corresponds to 27.4% of the total population (IBGE, 2006). Considering this significant part of young people with own source of income, the tobacco industry has permanently invested in marketing and political strategies to conquer them: the 6th cheapest cigarettes of the world; the great smuggled cigarette availability; the diversity of sale’s points, where the marketing is still permitted and the social and environment corporative responsibility like Cultural and Environment Dialogues and the University Dialogues are examples. These ones happens in partnership with universities and students’ representative entities, bringing to the university public free lectures with sports celebrities, intellectuals and so on that are usually well known personalities, with great credibility among the youth segment. Since its creation in 2005, they already had been in universities of all the five regions of Brazil, reaching more than 23,000 young and constructing strong bonds with the students’ management companies. The conquest of an ample students’ social acceptance is expressed in the evaluation they have made, available in the company’s site: 97% had evaluated the Program as good or very good and 99% had considered the discussed subjects as interesting or very interesting. These all explain how still 3.7% of the Brazilian population between 12 and 17 years are smokers. This percentage grows for 16% considering the population between 18 and 24 years. These strategies shock with the National Tobacco Control Program, that has been facing Industry since the decade of 1980, having as one of its more significant conquests the total smoking products advertising ban in the television, Internet, and others, besides the sports, artistic and cultural events sponsorship’s banishment, through Federal Law nº10.167/00. This important conquers has been a cause of litigation for the Industry, having Souza Cruz petitioned against the federal law with an Unconstitutionality Direct Action (ADIN) to cancel the ban. The National Cancer Institute - INCA, an office of the Health Ministery, where the National coordination is located, has already subsidized the Federal Government that has already gone to justice with a contrary legal action. The same has done the Brasilian Alliance for Tobacco Control - ACTBr, that represents the social control of the tobacco control policy in Brazil. To face this offensive we need to extend social mobilization to maintain the advertising prohibition and also to extend it to 100% of prohibiton, that is also in the points of sale. We need also to foment a critical attitude by the youngsters collectively building up strategies for the creation of a National Young Net for Tobacco Control in Brazil linked with LA RED – “Latinoamerica Respira Diferente” (THE NET) that is a net of youth for advocacy to tobacco control, composed of 50 youngsters of 06 Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, that assumed the role of national leaderships to trace action in their nations. Currently Brazil is represented only by a technician assessor of our Coordination,that is Evandro. For its democratic, equality, multiplying and participative nature, the social networks are presented as the most adequate channels to improve the youthful enrollment. The possibility of creation of young net for tobacco control from the human and social capital preexisting in the youth movements and organizations opens new possibilities and would set fire a significant social and political pressure to deep the restrictions to the industry. We are sure this meeting will certainly promote this. Thats all for now. Hope to see you soon. Evandro Alves and Maristela Menezes. Recife/PE/Brazil.

When I was part of Florida’s Students Working Against Tobacco in high school, a group of us campaigned to have cigarettes moved behind the counter at all sales points in our city and county. At the time, cigarettes were often placed on or in front of the counter at convenience stores, making them very visible and easy for children to steal (the industry paid to replace each stolen pack, so there was no incentive for the shop owners to go after the kids).

We modified an ordinance from another city, and worked with a local politician who helped us understand the process we needed to go through to get our ordinance passed. We had to meet with the local commerce board and present our case before the city and county commissioners. When it came time for the commissioners to vote, the ordinance passed easily.

Youth could use similar tactics to push for complete display bans (like Thailand’s) in their local areas. Sure, a small area is just a start, but in our case since other youth around the state were campaigning for similar ordinances, more and more of the state eventually adopted the laws. If youth from all over the country/world are campaigning for the same laws, eventually we’ll have the globe covered!

One more note–provisions for enforcement are key. Laws aren’t much good if there’s no way to ensure they are being followed!