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Child Item

Call to raise cost of tobacco to cut cancer rates

Noddyholder

The Irish Cancer Society has urged the Government to follow Australia’s lead and increase the cost of smoking after the southern nation announced plans to raise the price of a packet of cigarettes to AU$40 (€28.50) by 2020.

Donal Buggy, Head of Services and Advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society said: "We need to send a strong signal that the Government is serious about reaching its target of a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025.

Nearly 3,000 cancer deaths in Ireland annually, about one in four, are caused by smoking.

Forest Ireland, a campaign group for smokers, has criticised the call to increase the cost of tobacco.

"Tobacco is a legal product and consumers shouldn't be punished or treated like lepers for exercising their right to buy or consume it."

http://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0204/850105-cancer-smoking/

Do yo think by raising the price of tobacco to 28e will put people of smoking ?

And also what's this having a tobacco free Ireland in 8 years ?

The tobacco black market is huge & with laws like this will mushroom & I cant see Ireland in 8 years being tobacco free or am I reading that wrong ?

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the evasion_kid

bodhrandude wrote: »

Why don't they just make cigarettes healthier, put vitamin c in them or orange juice or something like that.

There is always vaping....But now there's talk of a tax on that and regulating the living beejayus out of it! More EU nonsense

goose2005

RasTa wrote: »

Time to ban or raise the price of booze to €15 a pint too

Only in offlicences of course.

Widdershins

the evasion_kid wrote: »

There is always vaping....But now there's talk of a tax on that and regulating the living beejayus out of it! More EU nonsense

Vaping is not good for you, either.

I agree with the other posters pointing out various things that people do despite it being known those things cause cancer. Living in a city and being exposed to exhaust fumes and general air pollution is as bad as passive smoking. I don't remember if first hand or passive smoking are worse but that seems bad enough to me. Add to that the diet of processed food, red meat and alcohol that many people consume, and there's plenty to be worrying about without obsessing over other peoples' cigarettes.

endacl

RasTa wrote: »

Time to ban or raise the price of booze to €15 a pint too

Duck Fat.

FlawedGenius

Why not just ban it like cannabis??its even worse than cannabis forbir health amd we all know cannabis makes you lazy and mad.... Ohhh coz they make a fortune on tax (eyes to heaven)

sparksfly

Duck fat as well? Ah ffs I must be riddled at this stage.

the_syco

From 2015; http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/price-to-blame-as-seizures-of-illegal-cigarettes-soar-307296.html

Increasing the price just increases the supply of illegal cigarettes which don't need to abide by any health laws.

Robineen

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

Life is short and then we die. Who really cares what kills us?

I doubt someone who is diagnosed with a terminal illness at a young age thinks that way, knowing that the vast majority of people will get decades more time to live than them.

Anyway, on the subject of the OP, 'tis nonsense. People will always find money for their vices.

Robineen

Parachutes wrote: »

I think the dangers of smoking are completely overblown, I know people in there 70's and 80's who have smoked their entire lives who are as strong and healthy as an ox.

Well, no, it's been greatly studied and that's against huge pressure from the tobacco industry. Cigarettes contain potent carginogens, of this there is no doubt. Citing people you know who lived long whilst smoking isn't useful. One must study it at the population level to draw conclusions about how harmful it is.

I agree that adults are big boys and girls and it's up to them whether they smoke or not. I'd never tell someone to not smoke or nag someone to quit. It's just strange that you say people should be educated on smoking but you don't seem interested in educating yourself on the subject?

Graces7

Wondering if anyone has correlated the cost and strain of treating smoking related illnesses on our beleagured health service?

newwan

CalamariFritti wrote: »

As is banning things that are viewed as 'dangerous' by some. Thats a load of bollix. If we don't endanger others why can't we decide for ourselves what we want to do with ourselves?
I hate this nanny state sh1t. Its patronising. You can't do this. You cant do that. You cant think like this. You mustn't say that. Will you feck off with that please? People are fed up with being told whats correct by others. You keep pestering them and they serve you a Trump in return.

Agreed for the most part but not re smoking.

Smoking kills others and do you have any idea how much it costs to keep an old crock smoker alive for a year when the sh1t hits the fan and they can't walk, have copd stroke cancer, legs amputated? Home oxygen for example. Whole house needs to be relaid. Literally millions are spent on these idiots as they die compared to non smoking people

newwan

Graces7 wrote: »

Wondering if anyone has correlated the cost and strain of treating smoking related illnesses on our beleagured health service?

I'm not aware of Irish data recently but it has been done in other areas and its collosal. Many of the most expensive diseases would not exist without smoking. Like even forget cancer. Lung cancer drugs aren't the most expensive. But the guys with copd who are hospitalised every winter. That's massive money and it's so common. Probably half of the 600 on trolleys are there due to smoking. Health care would be so much cheaper if we didn't have smoking

newwan

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

Life is short and then we die. Who really cares what kills us? If you didn't get cancer from smoking you'd most likely get it from something else anyway.

Stupidest post of the year. Maybe of all time? The money needed to pay for that cystic fibrosis drug for little kids to breathe is being spent on smokers...
Tax money is spent on dodgy fags

the_syco

newwan wrote: »

Health care would be so much cheaper if we didn't have smoking

And if we increase the price, the health care will get less money from taxes.

Weed is illegal, but you don't need ID to get it.

Markcheese

Drop the taxs on fags... but introduce an obligatory health insurance payment per pack ... to be stamped on your government services card ... no stamps - smoking related illness cover ....
Yeah it'd be extortionatly expensive .. and stupidly expensive to run ... but I don't smoke

srsly78

newwan wrote: »

Stupidest post of the year. Maybe of all time? The money needed to pay for that cystic fibrosis drug for little kids to breathe is being spent on smokers...
Tax money is spent on dodgy fags

Smoking saves the healthcare system money, go look at some economic studies.

newwan

the_syco wrote: »

newwan wrote: »

Health care would be so much cheaper if we didn't have smoking

And if we increase the price, the health care will get less money from taxes.

Weed is illegal, but you don't need ID to get it.

Again very short sighted post. There is no cure for copd. A Non smoking life and its health care is always going to be cheaper than a smokers life and health spend all things considered

newwan

srsly78 wrote: »

newwan wrote: »

Stupidest post of the year. Maybe of all time? The money needed to pay for that cystic fibrosis drug for little kids to breathe is being spent on smokers...
Tax money is spent on dodgy fags

Smoking saves the healthcare system money, go look at some economic studies.

Please post this study.

Maybe if you reckon killing people off in their 40s and 50s is good health economics...

drunkmonkey

They should be €25 a packet and come with 14 days of champix tablets stuck to the packet.

Saying that as someone back on the champix heading into the last 4 weeks again (got 4yrs off smokes the last time with them). Now off them a full week.

Champix are €100 a month and you've to take them for 3mts. That's a fecking rip off as I've been taxed to the bolix smoking for 20 years, benson and hedges should be paying for them at least.

srsly78

newwan wrote: »

Please post this study.

Maybe if you reckon killing people off in their 40s and 50s is good health economics...

Smokers dying young saves money, this is a fact. Whether is it desirable or not is debatable - but the money argument does not work.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199710093371506

El_Duderino 09

mzungu wrote:

â‚¬28.50 for a packet of 20? Could backfire badly and create an even bigger black market than there is now.

True the black market would expand. They are fairly hot on that at the moment and they share information with thx agencies around the world to follow illegal shipment. But clearly they don't catch all of them.

L Angelo Misterioso wrote:

Pointless. If the Government were so concerned they'd simply ban them altogether. Too much money to be made though - that's all they care about.

Ah here. It would be wrong to just ban them. But they can control the tax on them. When people talk about regulating things like prostitution and marijuana, they hardly mean making them simple to get. They mean making them legal but expensive.

Cigarettes are already legal so why would it be surprising that they would want to make them expensive?

NIMAN

L Angelo Misterioso wrote: »

Pointless. If the Government were so concerned they'd simply ban them altogether. Too much money to be made though - that's all they care about.

Heard some news story the other day about a guy caught with X amount of fags, think it was something like €40,000 worth.

The report said it was a loss to Revenue of €32,000.

Jez, now thats some amount of tax!

Fratton Fred

Widdershins wrote: »

Vaping is not good for you, either.

Probably not, but accoridng to research, it could save millions of lives a year

http://www.thejournal.ie/electronic-cigarette-e-cigs-ban-research-1656347-Sep2014/

However, the Irish cancer society want it regulated as a medicine.

https://www.cancer.ie/reduce-your-risk/smoking/electronic-cigarettes#Position

Which makes you wonder where they get this advice from.

osarusan

Rather than increase the price, I wonder how much would be saved if there was a real crackdown on illegal cigarettes.

I seem to remember a statistic that 25% of cigarettes are bought illegally here, but might be wrong on that.

Whatever it is, with such a high rate of tax on them, a crackdown would result in more tax from legally purchased cigarettes.

Widdershins

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Probably not, but accoridng to research, it could save millions of lives a year

http://www.thejournal.ie/electronic-cigarette-e-cigs-ban-research-1656347-Sep2014/

However, the Irish cancer society want it regulated as a medicine.

https://www.cancer.ie/reduce-your-risk/smoking/electronic-cigarettes#Position

Which makes you wonder where they get this advice from.

The article about vaping potentially saving lives was from 2014 but the information about the dangers of vaping is only coming to light now, and more all the time, so I'm not sure if that applies anymore.

El_Duderino 09

Widdershins wrote:

The article about vaping potentially saving lives was from 2014 but the information about the dangers of vaping is only coming to light now, and more all the time, so I'm not sure if that applies anymore.

Yeah in the way that heart disease kills people and exercise saves lives. Exercise puts some strain on the body too - but they're not the same risk.

There are some health problems with vaping. Tobacco and all the junk they put in cigarettes is much worse than any harm caused by vaping.

Riddle101

Well if you ask me, smoke at your own risk I say. Don't give a damn who smokes or not, but increasing the cost is not an effective solution to cutting cancer rates. And really why should there be a solution. If people want to smoke let them it's their decision.

Widdershins

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Yeah in the way that heart disease kills people and exercise saves lives. Exercise puts some strain on the body too - but they're not the same risk.

There are some health problems with vaping. Tobacco and all the junk they put in cigarettes is much worse than any harm caused by vaping.

Hmm..no I think the risks posed by vaping are serious in their own right. I don't think it's possible to definitively say which is worse when new information's being released all the time. Although I know there's quite a lot of ''junk'' in cigarettes too.

Another element to vaping is the collectability of the equipment. I know people who are really enthusiastic about the different kinds of units (one friend has a collection and uploads photos of her latest additions to FB.) Lots of people keep telling me about how great the flavoured e-juices are. I suspect this could be appealing to non smokers, especially teenagers.

I don't think it's a good solution and I thought it was not supposed to be used as a full time cigarette substitute anyway. Just my own opinion, can't say much more since it appears that little is known about vaping yet.

Mrs Woman

Deleted User wrote: »

The most I have paid for a pack of fags in the last 10 years is €6. You can go to Poland and bring 800 back legally and they are only €3.50 a pack.

Me too, they can raise the price to 28 euro but I dont' buy from them anyway

Gatling

It was suggested years ago but the various union's said if they increased smokes by a large amount the government would have increase wages to cover the cost of living increase if I remember correctly