Uruguay v the tobacco giant

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Uruguay was one of the first countries in the world to introduce anti-smoking laws.

But in 2010, the tobacco giant Philip Morris took the country to court claiming the measures devalued its investments.

The case pitted the right of a country to introduce health policies against the commercial freedoms of a cigarette company.

Uruguay’s former Public Health Minister María Julia Muñoz tells Grace Livingstone about the significance of the ban and its fallout.

(Photo: An anti-tobacco installation in Montevideo, Uruguay. Credit: Pablo La Rosa/Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds.
0:02.0	Hello everyone, it's Michelle Vassage, and welcome to my podcast Rule Breakers.
0:06.0	But you'll sit down and be bright.
0:08.0	Celebrating women's voices.
0:10.0	You're very welcome to now you're asking with me, Marion Keys Keys and me Tara Flynn.
0:14.7	This is juicy. No limits, no limits.
0:17.1	Celebrating women.
0:18.6	Where to be a woman is the podcast celebrating the best of women's well-being. We're on a quest to find out
0:24.4	where in the world women are living their best lives. Celebrate yourself.
0:28.5	Lesson on BBC Sounds.
0:46.0	Hello, welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Grace Livingstone. I'm taking you back to Uruguay in 2010 when the tobacco giant Philip Morris lodged a complaint against the country's
0:50.7	anti-smoking measures sparking an international legal battle.
0:55.2	No fumens your gasa.
0:57.2	No fumbeen trot of casa.
0:59.2	Don't smoke in the house or the office or the kitchen they're singing.
1:07.0	It was part of a government anti-smoking drive, but not long after its launch, it hit an obstacle.
1:15.7	It was a very disagreeable surprise.
1:18.8	Maria Julio Munoz was Uruguay's minister of Public Health.
1:25.0	I was in the office.
1:27.0	Actually, we found out about it from the media.
1:30.0	Press reports were arriving at the ministry.
1:32.0	We didn't think it was reasonable that a country
	...

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