Update 34: February 18 , 2004-3
Copyright © 2004 Earth Policy Institute
U.S. Leading World Away from Cigarettes
The United States—the
country that gave the world tobacco—is
now leading it away from cigarettes. After climbing for nearly a century,
the number of cigarettes smoked per person in this country peaked at nearly
2,900 in 1976 and began to decline. By 2003 the figure had dropped to
1,545 cigarettes—a
fall of 46 percent. If this trend continues for another quarter-century,
smokers will be a rarity in the United States.
As the costs of cigarette smoking become clear, pressure to phase out
cigarettes is gaining momentum. At its annual meeting in 2003, the American
Society of Clinical Oncology called for the elimination of tobacco from
the world. Its president, Dr. Paul A. Bunn, Jr., noted: "We are cancer
doctors. We get frustrated seeing the devastation caused by tobacco products."
At a broader level, the World Medical Association (WMA), which includes
organizations representing 10 million doctors from 117 countries, has
called for strong measures to reduce cigarette smoking. The 4.9 million
annual deaths from inhaling cigarette smoke exceed the 3 million deaths
from all other air pollutants combined. Among the WMA's principal recommendations
are raising taxes on and banning all advertising for cigarettes.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a "Tobacco
Free Initiative." Its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was unanimously
approved in May 2003 by the 192 countries attending the World Health Assembly.
Calling for bans on cigarette advertising, higher taxes on cigarettes,
and restrictions on smoking in the workplace, this treaty will take effect
once 40 members have ratified it.
World usage of this addictive product peaked in 1987 at 1,038 cigarettes
smoked per person. Though the decline lagged trends in the United States
by roughly a decade, the global figure fell to 887 cigarettes per person
in 2002, a drop of nearly 15 percent. Countries that were once bastions
of smoking, such as France, Japan, and China, are following the U.S. lead.
In France—where
the government is now taking strong steps to discourage smoking—the
number of cigarettes smoked per person dropped from 1,750 in 1985 to 1,338
in 2003, a decline of more than 23 percent. In Japan, where most men once
smoked, the peak came in 1992. Since then annual consumption has dropped
some 18 percent, from 2,744 cigarettes per person to 2,247 cigarettes
in 2003. And in China, the world's most populous country, smoking peaked
in 1990 at 1,440 cigarettes per person and then fell 8 percent to 1,330
cigarettes in 2003.
Evidence of the damaging effects of cigarette smoking on human health
continues to accumulate. Today there are some 25 known tobacco-related
diseases, including heart disease, strokes, respiratory illnesses, and
several forms of cancer. Recent research findings show that smoking increases
breast cancer in women by 30 percent and contributes to impotence in men.
The constriction and blockage of small blood vessels that can prevent
an erection in men who smoke is a forerunner of the blockage of the larger
coronary arteries that leads to heart disease.
The number of deaths per year worldwide from smoking-related illnesses—currently
at 4.9 million—is
expected to reach 10 million by 2020. WHO estimates that nearly one third
of all adult smokers will die of smoking-related illnesses. In China,
where smoking is largely limited to males, easily 100 million men could
eventually die from smoking-related illnesses if smoking rates are not
further reduced.
In addition to the human suffering from lung cancer, heart disease, and
other smoking-caused illnesses, the economic cost of cigarette use is
high. A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates
that each pack of cigarettes smoked in the United States costs society
$7.18 in health care and lost employee productivity. It is the economics
of smoking that helped convince the World Bank to ally itself with WHO
in an effort to stamp out tobacco production and use.
Among the steps being taken to discourage smoking are educational campaigns
on how smoking affects health, bans on advertising, restrictions on indoor
smoking, higher taxes, and legal actions by smoking victims against tobacco
companies. Information campaigns can be particularly effective in rural
areas of developing countries, where information on smoking and health
is almost nonexistent.
In the United States, California—a
leader in the anti-smoking campaign—has
exploited concerns about impotence in a television commercial in which
a man's flirtation with a woman fails when the cigarette in his mouth
begins to droop. While teenagers may not be particularly concerned about
their mortality, they do worry about their sexuality. In Thailand, cigarette
packs carry a warning in large type: "Cigarette smoking causes sexual
impotence."
Raising taxes on cigarettes has become commonplace at the state level
in the United States. This both discourages smoking and helps close spiraling
fiscal deficits. In 2002, some 19 of the 50 states raised cigarette taxes
by an average of 42� per pack. In 2003, another 13 states raised taxes.
On top of the federal tax of 39� per pack, New Jersey has an added tax
of $2.05. New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts each have taxes of
$1.50 a pack.
Some countries have discouraged smoking with stiff taxes on cigarettes.
Among the leaders in this effort are Norway with a tax of $5.99 per pack,
the United Kingdom at $5.03, Ireland at $3.52, and Denmark at $3.08.
Legal action holding cigarette manufacturers responsible for the products
they market is beginning to gain traction in many countries. This approach
is perhaps most advanced in the United States. In late November 1998,
the U.S. cigarette industry agreed to pay the 50 state governments a staggering
total of $251 billion to cover past Medicare costs of treating smoking-related
illnesses—nearly
$1,000 for every American.
Early attempts to protect nonsmokers from the adverse effects of cigarette
smoke included segregating smokers on planes and in restaurants. More
recently this has been replaced by outright bans. Local bans on indoor
smoking in workplaces and public buildings, planes, trains, buses, restaurants,
and bars are now commonplace. Several states—including
New York, Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, and California—have
banned smoking in restaurants and bars. The Norwegian Parliament, in April
2003, became the first country to approve a national ban on smoking in
restaurants and bars. Ireland and the Netherlands are following suit.
Bhutan, a small mountainous kingdom between India and China, may be the
first country to completely ban cigarettes. Already 19 of its 20 district
health officials are working to make the sale of tobacco products illegal
and to fine anyone caught smoking in public.
Measures that discourage smoking will quickly reduce smoking-related illnesses
and raise life expectancy. Only a few years ago the idea that citizen
action groups, national governments, medical associations, WHO, and the
World Bank would be working together to create a tobacco-free world would
have seemed farfetched. Today, it is becoming a reality.
Copyright © 2004 Earth Policy Institute
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From Earth Policy Institute
Lester R. Brown, Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003).
Lester R. Brown, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001).
Lester R Brown, "World Kicking the Cigarette Habit," Eco-Economy Update, 10 May 2000.
Bernie Fischlowitz-Roberts, "Air Pollution Fatalities
Now Exceed Traffic Fatalities by 3 to 1," Eco-Economy
Update, 17 September 2002.
From Other Sources
World Health Organization, The Tobacco Atlas (Brighton, UK: 2002).
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Tobacco: World Markets and Trade (Washington, DC: issued quarterly).
LINKS
Action on Smoking and Health
http:/www.ash.org
American Society of Clinical Oncology
http:/www.asco.org
Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative
http:/www.ctcri.ca
U.S. Centers for Disease Control, tobacco information
http:/www.cdc.gov/tobacco
Federation of Tax Administrators
http:/www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate
World Health Organization, Tobacco Free Initiative
http:/www.who.int/toh
World Medical Association
http:/www.wma.net