Tobacco tax increase will save lives

Smuggling is a criminal issue, says Irish Cancer Society

The Irish Cancer Society has called on Government to save lives and encourage smokers to quit by increasing the price of tobacco in the Budget on Wednesday. "Every day, sixteen people die unnecessarily as a result of smoking and annually the cost to the health budget is €2 billion. Smoking is the biggest single cause of cancer in Ireland and lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer. Therefore every measure that can be taken to tackle smoking, must be taken, and raising price is one of the most effective weapons available," said Kathleen O'Meara, Head of Advocacy and Communications at the Irish Cancer Society. Ms. O'Meara said that the argument that increasing price will increase smuggling is a red herring being used by the tobacco industry to argue against a price increase and she urged the Government not to be taken in by this spurious argument. "The smuggling of cigarettes is a criminal issue which is robbing the Exchequer of much needed revenue as well as threatening health. It can and must be tackled at that level. Smuggling is not the result of high price. Some countries where legal cigarettes are low in price also have a very high smuggling rate. Smuggling can be and should be tackled as it is undermining health policies designed in particular to discourage young people from starting smoking," she said. "Seventy per cent of smokers want to stop smoking and increasing price is one of the most effective ways to enable them to make that decision. We want fewer people to smoke in Ireland so that the cancer rate goes down. High tobacco prices will cut our smoking rate. If tobacco taxes are increased, we should do it with one objective in mind – for fewer people to die from lung cancer in Ireland." Increasing the price of cigarettes would cut the smoking rate as well as discourage young people to start smoking, says the Irish Cancer Society. Irish people start smoking at the youngest average age in the EU, at just 16 years of age. "The Government has an opportunity to make a strong, decisive move in this Budget," says Ms. O’Meara. "We are calling on Government to increase price and put it to the tobacco industry that if they want to lower the retail price, then they’ll have to do it by decreasing their own profits. We want all the excise tax collected from smokers to be used to fund supports to help smokers quit. It should not be allowed to trickle into the general pool of Exchequer funding." In its joint Pre Budget Submission with the Irish Heart Foundation this year, the Irish Cancer Society has called on Government to commit to an annual tax increase of the rate of inflation plus 5%. This would keep cigarettes unaffordable to children. Ms O’Meara continued, "We have consistently argued that a three pronged approach is required to tackle smoking prevalence – price increases for tobacco products, comprehensive smoking cessation programmes and stronger smuggling controls. If we don’t tackle smoking rates by helping people to quit, we are in grave danger of seeing the benefits of the very progressive anti-tobacco legislation we have introduced seriously undermined, with addiction and inevitably deaths from tobacco, increasing." Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable deaths in Ireland. Tobacco kills more people in Ireland than road accidents, suicides, drugs, farm accidents and AIDS put together. Smoking causes 30% of all cancers, including 95% of all lung cancers and causes three times the risk of heart attack compared to non-smokers. Overall 5,700 people die in Ireland every year from smoking-related illnesses including cancer, heart and respiratory disease.