Tabaré Vázquez, President of Uruguay

On March 1st, 2005 Dr. Tabare Vasquez assumed the position of President of Uruguay, a small, poor country in South America.

He was previously an oncologist, a physician specializing in cancer treatment. At that time, Uruguay had one of the highest rates of smoking in South America. Exactly a year after he took office, Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces.Two years later he introduced another package of six anti-smoking policies, including health warnings on 50% of cigarette packages, severe restrictions on advertising, and a prohibition on the use of the use of the words “light” or “mild” to describe cigarettes. In 2009-10 health warnings were enhanced with stronger graphic images that were also larger – increasing to 80 percent of the front and back of the pack. This made Uruguay’s warning the largest in the world. In February 2010, a week before the end of his term in office, he raised tobacco taxes so much that it doubled the price of a package of cigarettes.

The Lancet published research proving that his policies worked, by comparing smoking in Uruguay with smoking in Argentina, which did not implement tobacco control measures.

Smoking in Uruguay V Argentina

“During 2005–11, per-person consumption of cigarettes in Uruguay decreased by 4·3% per year, whereas per-person consumption in Argentina increased by 0·6% per year.” – Lancet

In 2006, the WHO gave Tabaré Vázquez the Director General’s Award for his work on tobacco control:

“President Tabaré Vázquez ..has provided exceptional personal leadership in Uruguay’s tobacco control initiatives in the face of strong tobacco industry opposition. President Vázquez’s personal efforts to achieve Uruguay’s model policies have had and will continue to have a wide-ranging impact on public health in Latin America.”

“Uruguay has recently moved into the forefront of leaders in tobacco control in the Region of the Americas and in the world. Uruguay has accomplished what many said could never be achieved in Latin America: it became smoke-free on March 1, 2006. It began requiring all tobacco products sold in the country to carry one of eight hard-hitting, image-based health warnings on half of each of the main faces of the packaging. These messages ..focus on the harm caused by secondhand smoke, reinforcing the new, successful smoke-free law..”

The Philip Morris tobacco company was less impressed and sued the Government of Uruguay. They argued that the new, larger health warnings ” ...are extreme, have not been proven to be effective, have seriously harmed the company’s investments in Uruguay and have deprived the company of its ability to use its legally protected trademarks and brands.”

Warning labels in Uruguay

“We have no choice but to litigate,” said Morgan Rees, Director Communications Regulatory for Philip Morris International.

“Philip Morris wants to make an example to Uruguay and intimidate other countries,” replied Tabaré Vázquez, November 2010.

Uruguayan journalist Claudio Paolillo commented: “Uruguay offers a cautionary tale for other small countries willing to take on the tobacco industry. In 2009, Uruguay’s GDP was $32 billion while Philip Morris’s revenues that year hit $62 billion. Uruguay’s leaders worried, for good reason, whether they could successfully wage a long fight against a sophisticated multinational corporation.”

The case is still before the courts. A number of groups and individuals are supporting Uruguay in its battle against Philip Morris.

It is sad that Philip Morris feels that the rights if its investors to make money supersedes the rights of the President of Uruguay, a cancer expert, to take the actions needed to protect the citizens of Uruguay from their cancer-causing product.

For standing up to the tobacco industry, and for doing what he, as a physician, knew was right to improve the health of the people of Uruguay, Dr. Tabare Vasquez is one of my heroes. I congratulate him on his re-election and wish him all the nest for the next five years.