FRIDAY, Sept. 6, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- What's the single most effective way of preventing deaths from smoking?
Hike the price of cigarettes, new research says.
Raising the tax on cigarettes could avert between 5 million and 16 million tobacco-related deaths worldwide in the coming years, according to a study in the September issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of several types of tobacco control: tax increases; nicotine replacement; and a package of interventions, including bans on advertising and promotion of tobacco products, anti-smoking education and smoking restrictions in public places or work places.
They then used economic models and the results of previous smoking cessation studies to estimate the number of deaths that could be avoided by using the three methods around the world. These results were applied to a global model of smokers in 1995.
Raising the price of cigarettes by 10 percent worldwide would prevent between 5 million and 16 million deaths, they found. People in low- to mid-income countries and people between the ages of 15 and 29 would be the most impacted by the price increases, according to the study.
"In general, price increases are the most cost-effective, anti-smoking intervention," writes lead author Dr. M. Kent Ranson, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England.
John Banzhaf, executive director Action on Smoking and Health, says the study is consistent with previous research.
"There are many studies which show that increasing taxes on cigarettes is a very effective way to decrease consumption," Banzhaf says. "And it's no surprise that they are most effective with kids and with people who are in the lower socioeconomic classes."
Nicotine replacement includes products such as chewing gum, skin patches, nasal sprays, inhalers and lozenges. Liberalizing access to nicotine replacement could avoid 1 million to 5 million smoking-related deaths, the study found. It would have the greatest impact on people between 30 to 59 years old.
Bans on advertising, prohibition of smoking in public places and anti-smoking educational programs would probaably reduce smoking worldwide by about 2 percent, meaning another 5 million lives would be saved.
In the United States, about 23.3 percent of adults smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And 70 percent of them want to quit, reports the 2000 National Health Interview Survey.
Peter Jacobson, an associate professor of health law at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says the new study is logical based on previous research findings.
However, Jacobson adds, the study underestimates the power and importance of education programs that "de-normalize" smoking, making it a habit that is socially unacceptable.
This change in attitude toward smoking is largely a result of ceaseless efforts by educators and public health experts to spread the message about the dangers of tobacco, says Jacobson, lead author of Combating Teen Smoking: Research and Policy Strategies.
"One might get the false impression from this study that the only thing that's needed is to raise taxes," Jacobson says. "What's missing, and what many tobacco control researchers are starting to look at, are more comprehensive programs."
Raising taxes is but one, albeit important, weapon in the arsenal against tobacco.
He points out that smoking rates are higher in European countries than in the United States, even though Europe has higher taxes on cigarettes. In countries such as Denmark and Portugal, taxes account for more than 70 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes. In the United States, Massachusetts has the highest tax rate at 38 percent, he notes.
What about smokers' rights?
Banzhaf puts little stock in their arguments that they're being overtaxed. He cites a CDC study that found each pack of cigarettes will mean subsequent health-care costs of about $12.85. Much of that cost is paid for by non-smokers in the form of taxes and higher health-care costs, Banzhaf says.
In the state of New York, for example, smokers pay $1.50 tax on each pack of cigarettes -- far less than the $12.85 it will eventually cost in health-care expenses, he adds.
"It's a small step in the right direction to make them pay their fair share of these huge costs," he says.
What To Do
For more information on the legal battle against tobacco, upcoming anti-smoking legislation and the latest tobacco research, visit Action on Smoking and Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tips on quitting smoking.
