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A World Health Organization (WHO) report states that if current smoking patterns continue, tobacco will require the lives of nearly 1 billion people this century, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. To increase that staggering statistic, nearly half of those deaths will occur before 70 years old. How can this be prevented?
According to a new study published in January online in the New England Journal of Medicine, hiking in the taxes on tobacco three times what it is now around the world could prevent 200 million tobacco deaths by 2025 and lower the number of smokers by one-third.
The thinking is that the large tax increase would double the street price of cigarettes in some countries and reduce the price gap between the cheapest and many expensive cigarettes. Therefore would persuade folks to prevent smoking vs. switching to a cheaper logo and help young people not take in the habit whatsoever.
In an argument, study co-author Dr. Prabhat Jha asserted this is particularly effective in low- and middle-income countries, where the cheapest cigarettes are relatively affordable where smoking rates still rise.
For people younger than 70 in North America, tobacco causes nearly 200,000 deaths each year. By doubling cigarette prices, 70,000 of these deaths would be prevented and supply new revenue that governments could invest in health care. Dr. Jha explained that although higher tobacco taxes would cut consumer spending, they would still generate an additional $100 billion a year for a total of $400 billion.
“Death and taxes are inevitable, but they don’t have to use that order,” said Dr. Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “A higher tax on tobacco is the single most effective intervention to lower smoking rates and also to deter future smokers,” he added.
Dr. Prentiss Taylor, a preventive medicine primary care specialist with Advocate Medical Group agrees. Citing?a study in the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Dr. Taylor highlights that based on research, the key reason cigarette taxes are competitive with they are is the fact that young people are very sensitive to price hikes.
“The report states cigarette prices that increase by 10 percent will lead smokers younger than 18 to cut their smoking by 5 to fifteen percent. For adults over the age of 18, the decline could be a lot more like 3 to 7 percent,” he says.
