What is the right price for a pack of cigarettes? There is the cost of raw materials, tobacco, paper, filters; then packaging and cellophane. There are the working hours of those who cultivated and harvested the tobacco, of those who packaged the product. There are storage, distribution, promotion, environmental impact. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of people who get sick from that package every year. The treatments, the drugs, the hours of work lost. There are ninety thousand victims a year in Italy alone and about 26 billion euros in direct and indirect costs. But that’s not enough. Included in the price of tobacco is the most effective public health measure to reduce consumption and save lives, as the World Bank defined it more than twenty years ago. If that price goes up, the World Health Organization tells us today, those go down eight million smoking-related deaths worldwide every year, resources are mobilized, inequalities are reduced, the sustainability of health systems improves.
Raise prices
In these twenty years, several countries have decided to increase the price of smoking products and the best results have been seen precisely where the measures have been courageous. In Ireland, for example, a package costs 13 euros, in Australia at least 18, in the United Kingdom more than 10 euros, as has recently been the case in France. The price alone is not enough, but together with real support for cessation and targeted campaigns. concrete results are achieved. It is no coincidence that, for example, in the UK today the mortality rate from lung cancer among men is 25 per cent lower than in Europe. a goal achieved thanks to decisions and commitments made years ago. That is why the right time to act and to take ambitious paths is now. With the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, which I chair, for some years we have been promoting a rational, modern and far-sighted reflection on the taxation of tobacco products. On May 21, our Scientific Committee for the fight against smoking presented una petition to Parliament, asking for an increase in the price of all tobacco products through the rescheduling of excise duties. A substantial increase, without shyness and as timely as possible.
Limited resources
These are complex changes, and there are various factors to consider alongside the excise tax increase: would smuggling increase? The experiences of neighboring countries tell us that a largely controllable phenomenon. Would it be a vexatious move at a time like this, which is difficult on an economic, social and psychological level? No, because right now we have the exact perception of the limitation of our resources, of the preciousness of our universal and supportive health system, of the need to invest in prevention to protect the ability to care. Right now we know that the heaviest bill of that pack of cigarettes is paid by the weakest. We raise the price of cigarettes, we protect people, we increase the resources to cure, help quit smoking, conduct independent research. The alternative is an inaction which is increasingly difficult to justify.
May 27, 2021 (change May 27, 2021 | 15:57)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED