A new bill that would make public and workplaces 100% smokefree in Chile was approved by The Health Commission of the Lower House of Congress (Diputados) due to support from The Union Mexico Office. The Union worked with the Ministry of Health throughout the process of developing and putting forward the bill.

Union staff from the office in Mexico City reviewed the project and supported the MOH in presenting the initiative to the Health Commission of the Congress before it was voted upon. The Union also signed a petition with other international partners to urge the Chilean government to push for tobacco control laws compliant with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The Ministry of Health – Department of Public Health only became a Union grantee under the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (BI) in the second quarter of 2011, but its efforts have already had an impact on the campaign for smokefree policies and tobacco control.

Immediate and positive outcomes resulted from The Union staff visit and other related activities: the Health Commission unanimously approved the bill sent by the executive and the MOH, which has subsequently been put forward for discussion in the plenary.

Restaurants and bars currently permit smoking rooms in enclosed areas, which the new bill acknowledges as counterproductive to efforts to reduce the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.  Therefore, the new bill recommends banning smoking rooms, aiming instead for 100% smokefree public and work places.

The MOH hopes that these initiatives will reduce the number of smokers and consumers of other types of tobacco products.  Currently more than 40% of Chileans over the age of 15 years use tobacco of some kind. The economic impact of treating tobacco-related illnesses in Chile is very high, with over 18% of the national budget devoted to treating tobacco-related diseases.