烟草在线据《经济学人》报道编译　　卷烟，如一代又一代的学子被教的那样，是从美洲和土豆以及成堆的黄金一起被带到欧洲的。拉丁美洲仍沉迷于这些东西。但是欧洲地区已经开始尝试戒掉这个习惯。3月，智利成为第14个禁止在封闭的公共场所吸烟的拉美国家。

　　智利的转换是重要的，因为它是一个吸烟者的天堂。世界卫生组织说超过40%的智利人吸烟，相比之下，27%的阿根廷人和17%的巴西人吸烟，智利于1990年代末开始限制吸烟。智利卫生部长杰米·马那里奇说，治疗的烟草受害者耗费了100亿美元公共卫生保健预算的四分之一。

　　智利的烟民越来越年轻。据行业的一份研究《卷烟图册》显示，在智利首都圣地亚哥，近40%的13-15岁的女孩抽烟。这高于2003年的20%，是世界上最高的吸烟率。这在一定程度上要归咎于智利的日益繁荣。马那里奇先生还指出了文化变革的因素：“智利一直是一个很有男子气概的国家，但是正在改变。对于女性来说，在公共场所吸烟是她们解放了的标志。”

　　拉丁美洲的吸烟新限制，面临着来自行业的阻力。美国烟草公司菲莫国际，在世界银行的国际投资争端解决中心对乌拉圭提起了诉讼，声称这个国家的禁烟措施违反了双边投资条约。世界第三大烟叶生产国巴西，面临着来自保护工作的种植园主的压力。

　　反烟游说者希望看到整个拉丁美洲卷烟的价格和税收是一致的，以阻止走私品。各国之间的收入差距很大，这将是个难题。但政府可以用其他措施阻止吸烟，比如限制广告、更大的健康警语和尼古丁替代疗法。

　　“只有撒旦才能赋予人通过口腔排出烟的能力，”第一个把烟草带入欧洲的哥伦布的水手之一罗德里戈·德·赫雷斯在西班牙法庭上被审讯时说。拉美各国政府现在似乎同意这种说法。

Chile: Smoking in Latin America: Stubbed out

　　TOBACCO, as generations of schoolchildren have been taught, was brought to Europe from the Americas along with potatoes and piles of gold. Latin America remains addicted to the stuff. But the region has now begun to try to kick the habit. This month Chile became the 14th Latin American country to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces.

　　Chile's conversion is significant, since it is something of a smokers' corner. The World Health Organisation says over 40% of Chileans smoke, compared with 27% of Argentines and 17% of people in Brazil, where curbs on smoking began in the late 1990s. Chile's health minister, Jaime Mañalich, says that treating tobacco victims takes a quarter of the $10 billion public health-care budget.

　　Chile's smokers are getting younger. According to the Tobacco Atlas, a study of the industry, nearly 40% of girls aged 13-15 in Santiago, Chile's capital, smoke cigarettes. That is up from just 20% in 2003, and is the highest rate in the world. Growing prosperity is partly to blame. Mr Mañalich also points to a cultural change: "Chile has always been a very macho country but that is changing. For women, smoking in public is somehow a sign they are liberated."

　　Latin America's new curbs on smoking face resistance from the industry. Philip Morris International, an American tobacco company, has filed a claim against Uruguay at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, an arm of the World Bank, claiming that the country's anti-smoking measures violate a bilateral investment treaty. Brazil, the world's third-biggest producer of tobacco leaf, faces pressure from its planters to protect their jobs.

　　The anti-smoking lobby wants to see pricing and taxing of cigarettes be co-ordinated across Latin America, to discourage contraband. With income varying widely among countries, that would be hard. But governments could discourage smoking with other steps, such as curbs on advertising, bigger health warnings and subsidising nicotine-replacement therapy.

　　"Only Satan can grant man the faculty of expelling smoke through the mouth," declared the Spanish Inquisition in imprisoning Rodrigo de Jerez, one of Columbus's sailors, and the first person to bring tobacco to Europe. Latin American governments now seem to agree. Enditem