Today marks the end of this year’s edition of National Non-Smoking Week, but Les Hagen wants teens to just butt out once and for all.
“Overall, smoking rates have declined significantly in the last 10 years,” he said. “That’s among the general population. As far as adolescents are concerned, the news isn’t that good.”
Hagen is the executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, the Edmonton-based advocacy organization that has been lobbying hard for more than two decades to change public attitudes and social policy.
In Alberta, teen smoking rates have levelled off over the last few years, and Hagen says there’s no indication that they will decline in the future. For 2010, Alberta Health and Wellness wanted the rate to go down to 10 per cent of adolescents aged 12 to 19. Instead, the rate has been around 13 or 14 per cent for the last few years and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon.
So what does it take to bring about more change? As far as Hagen is concerned, the thing that makes the most sense … is cents.
“Tax increases are the single most effective tool,” he stated, later tempering that statement by saying that even that tool only has a limited impact. “When it comes to pricing and taxation, the one thing we look at is affordability, which is a function of price and wages. Here in Alberta, we have one of the lowest tobacco taxes in the country … but we have the highest wages among young people. The two combine to make cigarettes very affordable.”
There were small increases in the price of cigarettes in 2007 and 2009, but the last time there was a major tax increase was in 2002 when the price of a pack of smokes went up $2.25. After that price hike, the smoking rate for teens 15 to 19 dropped by five per cent, down to 19 per cent. Consumption among the general population, however, went down by 24 per cent, almost five times as great a decline over the teens.
Right now, the cost for a pack of 25 cigarettes ranges from $10 to $12. ASH is pushing for a minimum increase of $2, but hoping for more at the same time.
“The government has done it before so they can do it again.”
Hagen said the Alberta government is considering implementing such a tax increase but he doesn’t know if or when it would be approved, or for how much. He remains hopeful that politicians will recognize not only the overwhelming medical evidence that demonstrates the mass health damage that smoking causes but if that doesn’t sway them then maybe simple economics will.
“The tobacco companies will say that it stimulates the economy, but by the time you factor in all of the lost productivity resulting from the disease and disability, it’s a net loss. The last time it was calculated was about $11 billion for Canada. Tobacco places a huge drag on our economy and our health care system and our quality of life.”
“Health and productivity go hand in hand. It’s hard to be productive when you’ve got lung cancer.”
