| The
Boycott of Tobacco Companies: |
The Costs of Tobacco Use
Whether you are a smoker or a non-smoker,
there are two indisputable facts. The
first is that the use of tobacco is legal.
The other is, if you use tobacco, it will probably affect your health.
These facts are from Center for Disease Control.
In the United States:
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Each
year, smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes,
murders, suicides, and fires---combined!
-
Tobacco
use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing
more than 400,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more
than $50 billion in direct medical costs.
-
Nationally, smoking results in more than 5
million years of potential life lost each year.
-
Approximately
80% of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Every day, nearly
3,000 young people under the age of 18 become regular smokers.
-
More
than 5 million children living today will die prematurely because of a
decision they will make as adolescents---the decision to smoke cigarettes.
Internationally (from the World Health
Organization (WHO) Fact sheet 154 and 155):
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Since the middle of the twentieth
century, tobacco products have killed more than 60 million people in
developed countries alone. WHO
#154.
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Currently,
tobacco is responsible for three and a half million deaths worldwide
- or about 7% of all deaths -- per year.
WHO #154.
-
Based
on current trends, that figure is expected to grow to ten million deaths per
year by the 2020s or early 2030s. It is estimated that tobacco products
will kill half a billion people now alive.
WHO #154.
-
On
average, lifetime smokers have a 50% chance of dying from tobacco. And half
of these will die in middle age, before age seventy, losing 22 years of
normal life expectancy. In 1990, smoking was responsible for 35% of all male
deaths occurring in middle age (age 35-69) in developed countries.
WHO #154.
-
A
World Bank study entitled "The Economic Costs and Benefits of Investing
in Tobacco" (March 1993) has estimated that the use of tobacco results
in a global net loss of US$200 billion per year, with half of these
losses occurring in developing countries. WHO #155.
-
Tobacco
use is a major drain on the world's financial resources, and has been
labeled a major threat to sustainable and equitable development.
WHO #155.
Tobacco
products cause a loss to the world economy that is so large that even a
conservative estimate ranks it as an amount exceeding total current health
expenditures in all developing countries combined. A World Bank study entitled
"The Economic Costs and Benefits of Investing in Tobacco" (March 1993)
has estimated that the use of tobacco results in a global net loss of US$200
billion per year, with half of these losses occurring in developing countries.
WHO #155.
But
there are other costs:
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The
costs associated with increased level of illnesses experienced by smokers,
-
The
cost of illnesses experienced by people exposed to second hand smoke,
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Damage
from fires caused by cigarettes and cigars,
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And
on and on.
In many cases, insurance companies pay
these costs. Of course insurance
companies can recoup these costs because they can charge smokers higher health
and life insurance premiums. But
the part paid by the government to care for Medicaid/Medicare recipients, is
paid by both the smoking and non-smoking taxpayers.
Regardless of who pays, tobacco use
imposes a substantial financial burden on society. Yet the tobacco business is
extremely profitable. Production
costs are low and customers are highly motivated to use the product.
The major cigarette companies that operate in the US had an operating
income of more than of $10 billion in 1998.
Compare that to the estimated $21.9 billion spend by the US government
(not private insurers) on smoking-related healthcare costs in 1987 (best
information available).
The tobacco companies make billions of
dollars on a product that causes considerable harm and expense to not only its
customers, but also its non-customers. The
research is clear: tobacco harms
users and second-hand smoke harms non-smokers. As tobacco companies profit, others pay the price.
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"WARNING: There is no safe tobacco
product. The use of any
tobacco product - including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and spit tobacco;
mentholated, low tar, naturally grown or additive free - can cause
cancer and other adverse health effects."
From the home page of Center
of Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco
For this discussion
the term “use of tobacco includes smoking cigarettes and cigars, and
also any type of chewing tobacco or snuff.
Cigar Health Problems:
American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/
tobacco/tr2.html
Cigars and Pipes as Lethal as Cigarettes say New European Study
Press Release WHO/23, 19 April 23, 1999
http://www.who.int/inf-pr-1999/en/
pr99-23.html
Smokeless
Tobacco Health Problems:
Mayo Clinic Health Oasis
Smokeless Tobacco – Getting Around the Myth
http://www.mayohealth.org/mayo/
9512/htm/smokelto.htm
Center for Disease
Control
Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS)
http://www.cdc.gov/
tobacco/issue.htm
World
Health Organization
Tobacco Epidemic: Health Dimensions--Tobacco is a Greater Cause of
Death and Disability Than Any Single Disease
WHO Fact Sheet Number 154
Revised May 1998
http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/
fact154.html
Tobacco Epidemic:
Much More Than A Health Issue
WHO
Fact Sheet N° 155
May 1998
http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/
fact155.html
According to the Center
of Disease Control tobacco use causes $50 Billion a year in indirect
medical costs.
http://www.cdc.gov/
tobacco/issue.htm
Second
Hand Smoke Information:
American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/
tobacco/tr5.html
Action on Smoking and Health
(Information on Studies)
http://ash.org/nonsmkr.html
Active and Passive Tobacco Exposure:
A Serious Pediatric
Health Problem
American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/
Scientific/statements/1994/
119401.html
Mayo Clinic -- Second Hand Smoke: Clearing the Air
http://www.mayohealth.org/mayo/
9708/htm/2nd_hand.htm
National Cancer Institute
http://rex.nci.nih.gov/INFO_CANCER/
Cancer_facts/Section3/FS3_90.html
According to the National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control:
23% of house fires that caused a death were due to smoking.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/
duip/fire2.htm
According to the
Consumer Product Safety Commission:
In 1996, tobacco products caused 28,200 fires, 1,140 deaths and 2,570
injuries with property loss of $325.9 million.
http://www.cpsc.gov/library/
fire96.pdf
Smokers Pay Higher
Insurance Premiums:
Compare premiums at:
http://www.americaquote.com
Medical-Care Expenditures
Attributed to Cigarette Smoking – US 1993
Center for Disease Control
MMWR Weekly Report
July 8, 1994, Vol. 46, No.26
Complete Study
ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Publications/
mmwr/wk/mm4326.pdf
Summary
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/osh/
medicexp.htm
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