Blowing Smoke

by Claire Pendergrass

           

Something very obvious here in Santiago is the number of people that smoke cigarettes. When walking down the street and even hanging out in the courtyard at our university, it is basically impossible to count the number of people holding cigarettes. In Biology, Dr. Hatcher told us that even though it seems like everyone in Santiago smokes, only a little more than 30% of the population actually does, and that number is significantly lower than in the past. This decrease could possibly be due to the strict law passed in 2006 banning smoking in public transportation, malls, airports, and many other public places and requiring very graphic pictures of the effects of smoking to be put on packs of cigarettes. However, this apparently did little to deter most avid smokers. When we got here, it was strange to go into a restaurant and see people smoking at the tables since smoking inside of restaurants has been illegal for a while in the U.S. However, since we have arrived here, the Chilean government passed a law banning smoking in all enclosed public spaces across the country, effective March 1st. It has been interesting to observe how this has affected the culture here. Now you can see more people standing around outside smoking, causing the insides of restaurants and other establishments to seem a lot emptier. Maybe this change in public policy will cause the number of smokers in Santiago to diminish, or perhaps people will just continue to deal with the inconvenience. Only time will tell.