User:Dnn630/sandbox

For around the last 40 years, Costa Rica did not have many smoking laws in place due to the influence of the big tobacco companies on their population and government. The laws that were in place were inconsistent and not very well enforced (4). Beginning in the 1970’s and lasting through the 1990’s, the country attempted to ban smoking. The first attempt to reduce tobacco use was in 1979 when a piece of legislation was proposed to ban all tobacco advertisement (2). They created many pieces of legislation including the 1982 Costa Rican Institute of Public Health, the 1986 Institute of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, and the 1995 Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, all of which shared a common goal of working to keep the people of Costa Rica healthy, which included the deterrence of cigarette smoking and lowering the risk of second hand smoke risks (2) Much of the work that these organizations did to reduce smoking was not successful among the population because of big tobacco companies having a greater political presence such as Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco. For instance, the bill in 1992 which would have made workplaces completely smoke free and stop tobacco companies from advertising cigarettes, was weakened by these companies and lead to the law in 1995 which allowed designated areas for smoking at workplaces and other public places and had weak restrictions when it came to the advertisement of tobacco products. Again in 2001 and 2002, the Pan American Health Organization worked with various groups to attempt to implement smoke free workplace legislation (3). Even though the program itself was not very successful, it was partially responsible for Bil 14.884 in the summer of 2002 which was successful in prohibiting smoking in the workplace (3). This bill also required more warning labels and prohibited advertising of tobacco products (3). The country also implemented programs such as the Courtesy of Choice which strengthened the tobacco industry (3). These pieces of legislation caused Costa Rica to be the main country for successful cooperation between the government and the tobacco industry, which ultimately allowed the tobacco industry to have success in marketing and selling their products throughout the late 1980’s into the early 2000’s. Another factor that contributed to smoking in this country was the lack of physicians as positive role models. During the early 1990’s, almost one fifth of physicians were current smokers and about 40% were former smokers (4). These numbers account for over half of physicians in all of Costa Rica who smoked cigarettes at some point in their life. Additionally, two thirds of physicians who did smoke did it at the workplace, which set a poor example for the patients (4). This being said, many people saw their doctors using tobacco products and in turn, made it seem more acceptable to use these products since medical professionals were doing so. Eventually, things began to turn around and new legislation for anti-smoking laws were put in place. In 2007, the National Anti-Tobacco Network (RENATA) worked with the government to ratify and implement the FCTC (1).

After this new law was passed in 2012, most people were not very well informed on the specifics of the law. Most people only knew that it prohibited smoking in public places but they were not aware of where exactly these places were or what was considered a public or gathering area (5).