ASH PR: Teen Smoking on the Rise Again, With Medical Costs to Escalate Simple Steps Could Reverse Trend, Saving Lives and Billions of Dollars [07/07/06-4]

Teen Smoking on the Rise Again, With Medical Costs to Escalate Simple Steps Could Reverse Trend, Saving Lives and Billions of Dollars

The long steady decline in teen smoking in the U.S. has come to a grinding halt and is now beginning to increase again, even though we could easily reverse the trend at virtually no cost, says Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in commenting on a new CDC report.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-07-07T121522Z_01_N06439715_RTRUKOC_0_US-SMOKING.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2

"The steep increases in teen cigarette use during the early 1990s were stopped and then reversed by a number of simple and well-understood techniques which we could easily use again -- at zero cost -- if we had the political will," says Professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH.

Moreover, such steps would begin to save hundreds of millions of dollars
-- within just a few years -- by slashing the totally unnecessary costs of treating birth defects, underweight babies, and other medical complications caused by teen smoking, most of which is paid for by nonsmokers in the form of higher taxes and inflated health insurance
premiums, says Banzhaf. In the longer run, this would reduce the huge
$140 billion annual cost smoking imposes on our economy.

Teen smoking began to decline in 1997 for several reasons. First, the multi-state tobacco settlement, in addition to limiting certain forms of cigarette advertising, caused a dramatic increase in the price of cigarettes as manufacturers raised wholesale prices in order to cover the billions of dollars they were now required to pay the states. The states, in turn, initially funneled significant amounts of that money into antismoking campaigns. Finally, many states also began raising cigarette taxes.

But teens have now grown to accept the current prices for cigarettes, and states are cutting their spending of tobacco settlement money on antismoking campaigns, and using most of it for uses totally unrelated to health. Thus neither higher prices nor antismoking campaigns are effectively deterring teen smoking.

"States could easily reverse this new trend by devoting more of the money they accepted in the tobacco settlement to antismoking campaigns instead of spending it on roads, bridges, old folks homes, and general administration," says Banzhaf, because the educational campaigns have proven their effectiveness.

Alternatively, they could significantly deter consumption of cigarettes by teens, especially younger ones, by substantially raising cigarette taxes -- a move which would also boost revenue, and provide an alternative source for additional funds to pay for expanded antismoking educational campaigns.

Another simple technique for deterring the purchase of products not legal for teens to buy is to strictly enforce laws requiring buyers to show proof of age -- a technique which is much more effective in deterring teen purchases of alcoholic beverages. The CDC reported that almost half of the students [48.5%] who attempted to buy cigarettes in a store were not even asked to show proof of age, much less refused the cigarettes.

"The simple reason why almost half the stores did not even ask teens for proof of age is that the fines are so small they are seen as a cost of doing business rather than as a serious deterrent, and there's very little incentive to mount enforcement campaigns -- including 'stings'
which work so effectively."

Liquor dealers are much more likely to check teens' IDs because even a few violations can lead to a license revocation, something which rarely happens with the illegal sale of cigarettes. Treating the sale of cigarettes the same way we treat the sale of alcoholic beverages would slash teen consumption, and the fines would more than pay for the enforcement effort, says Banzhaf.

Many major dangers to health are very difficult and/or every expensive to reduce, says Banzhaf, citing AIDS, teen pregnancy, and aggressive driving. But the most dangerous behavior of all can be reduced easily and at a net savings rather than a cost to taxpayers, and thereby save nonsmokers hundreds of billions of dollars in totally unnecessary health care and other costs.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA

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