CHICAGO A report by the World Bank and World Health Organization issued Tuesday found that higher taxes on tobacco products in developing countries sharply reduces smoking among the young, poor and undereducated. The report, a 512-page book entitled Tobacco Control in Developing Countries", found that higher taxes and a 10-percent hike in cigaret prices would result in nearly 42 million people quitting smoking.
As a result, about 10 million tobacco-related deaths would be prevented, said the report, delivered at the 11th World Tobacco or Health Congress in Chicago. The higher tax also would provide a much-needed increase in revenue about 7 percent on average to the coffers of poor and developing countries, the report said. It also said higher taxes would not result in tobacco smuggling and illegal activities if government corruption was kept in check.
"This research shows that the economic measure of a tax increase is the single most important intervention by governments to curb tobacco consumption," said Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO's director general, in a statement.
"Governments wishing to halt the rising toll of tobacco-related deaths should strongly consider a tobacco tax hike as a matter of priority," she said. The World Health Organization said that at current smoking rates, an estimated 1 billion people were expected to die from smoking this century, a tenfold increase over the previous century. "Even modest reductions in a disease burden of such immensity would bring highly significant health gains," said Derek Yach, a WHO executive director.
The latest statistics indicated that 5.3 trillion cigarets were smoked in the world in 1997. China had the highest consumption, with almost 1.7 trillion cigarets per year, followed by the United States with 480 billion cigarets, Japan with 316 billion, Russia with 230 billion and Indonesia with 199 billion cigarets smoked per year.
(DPA)