The 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health begins in Cape Town, South Africa this week (7-9 March 2018), and the first time the conference is being held in Africa. The is significant because South Africa has been a global tobacco control leader in the past twenty years by implementing tobacco control policies well before many other low- and middle-income countries. The success of these policies led to smoking prevalence declining from above 30% in the early 1990s to 16% at present. Furthermore, much of this reduction was a result of tobacco tax policies, which came to be recognized as ‘best practice’ that still serves a model for many other low- and middle-income countries. Read More
Tobacco use poses an unparalleled health and economic burden worldwide. A new study found that the diseases caused by smoking account for US$ 422 billion in health care expenditures annually, representing almost 6% of global spending on health. Smoking causes close to 6 million deaths per year – more than the deaths from HIV/AIDs, TB, and Malaria combined. And the total economic cost of smoking after including productivity losses from death and disability amounts to more than US$ 1.4 trillion per year – equivalent in magnitude to 1.8% of the world’s annual GDP.
Globally, the public health and economic burden of tobacco is increasingly carried by low- and middle- income countries rather than high-i Read More
Dr. Chaloupka was interviewed by Bloomberg Philanthropies' Jo Birckmayer on February 23, 2017, in New York City. This was Bloomberg Philanthropies' first Facebook LIVE episode in a new series called The Big Idea. They discussed the basics of tobacco taxation and why it is such an important policy tool to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use worldwide. Dr. Chaloupka also authored a blog post for Bloomberg Philanthropies describing 5 Things You Should Know About Tobacco Taxes. Read More
Tobacco use is the leading cause of non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Every year, about six million people worldwide die from tobacco use, with the vast majority of deaths in low- and middle-income countries. We also know that tobacco use costs the world’s economies over US $1.4 trillion annually in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity. Read More
Tobacconomics team members played key roles as scientific editors, co-authors, and reviewers of a new report by the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization, which finds that tobacco control measures are highly cost-effective and do not harm economies. However, while progress is now being made in controlling the global tobacco epidemic, existing measures have not yet been used to their full potential. ? Read More
What, if any, association exists between first use and current use of flavored tobacco products, and current flavored tobacco use and quit behaviors among US adults? Those are questions a group of researchers, including Ms. Danielle Smith, a University at Buffalo doctoral student and senior research associate at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, set out to answer in a recent study published in the peer reviewed journal Tobacco Control. Read More
Today we published two studies through the National Bureau of Economic Research that shed new light on how cigarette prices impact consumer demand for cigarettes. Both show that smokers not only respond to price changes, but do so even more than we thought. We took a close look at some of the factors that influence demand and found that increasing the cost per pack leads to larger reductions in smoking at higher price points. Read More
Bangladesh study shows tobacco products are becoming more affordable and there is need for tobacco tax system reform as tobacco users may switch between tobacco products rather than quit. Read More
