Geneva-(MaraviPost)-The World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) say policies and legal frameworks to control tobacco usage that include tobacco tax and price increases will generate significant government revenues for health and development work.
The development which will not go down well with developing nations including Malawi that heavily depend on tobacco sales proceeds in its revenue collection toward the state’s operations.
Even the embattled Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda made it clear last year that Malawi will not bow to pressure on anti-smoking global campaign on growing of tobacco arguing that the crop remains the country’s main foreign exchange earner.
Chaponda’s stance on the matter came after the country experienced the worst green gold’s prices in 2016 marketing which most farmers are currently cogitating whether to grow the crop or not in this year’s tobacco growing season.
The WHO and NCI of the United States of America latest landmark global report released on Tuesday, and made available to The Maravi Post, says such measures can also greatly reduce tobacco use and protect people’s health from the world’s leading killer diseases like cancer and heart disease.
The brief report observed that left unchecked, the tobacco industry and the deadly impact of its products cost the world’s economies more than US$ 1 trillion annually in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity.
The report further disclosed that about six million people die annually as a result of tobacco use, with most living in developing countries.
The 700-paged monograph by health experts examines existing evidence on two broad areas including the economics of tobacco control, including tobacco use and growing, manufacturing and trade, taxes and prices, control policies and other interventions to reduce tobacco use and its consequences; and the economic implications of global tobacco control efforts.
The monograph cited the 2016 study, which states that annual excise revenues from cigarettes globally could increase by 47%, or US$ 140 billion, if all countries raised excise taxes by about US$ 0.80 per pack.
Additionally, this tax increase would raise cigarette retail prices on average by 42%, leading to a 9% decline in smoking rates and up to 66 million fewer adult smokers.
In his observation Dr Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director for the prevention of NCDs, says the new report gives governments a powerful tool to combat tobacco industry.
Dr. Bettcher added that the report shows how lives can be saved and economies can prosper when governments implement cost-effective, proven measures, like significantly increasing taxes and prices on tobacco products, and banning tobacco marketing and smoking in public.
“Tobacco control is a key component of WHO’s global response to the epidemic of NCDs, primarily cardiovascular disease, cancers, chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and diabetes. NCDs account for the deaths of around 16 million people prematurely (before their 70th birthdays) every year.
“Reducing tobacco use plays a major role in global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030”, said Dr. Bettcher.
Concurring with Dr. Bettcher another health expert Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health says the economic impact of tobacco on countries, and the general public, is huge, as this new report shows.
“The tobacco industry produces and markets products that kill millions of people prematurely, rob households of finances that could have been used for food and education, and impose immense healthcare costs on families, communities and countries”, said Dr. Chestnov.
The monograph’s co-editor, Distinguished Professor Frank Chaloupka, of the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago added; “The research summarized in this monograph confirms that evidence-based tobacco control interventions make sense from an economic as well as a public health standpoint”.
Globally, there are 1.1 billion tobacco smokers aged 15 or older, with around 80% living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Approximately 226 million smokers live in poverty.
But tobacco is the Southern African nation’s main foreign currency earner and accounts for more than 70 percent of exports and 15 percent of GDP. The industry employs an estimated two million of Malawi’s 17 million people.
