Tobacco Prevention

 

Why it matters: When you include the healthcare costs of tobacco-related illnesses as well as the lost productivity of tobacco users, the true price of a pack of cigarettes is $11.15, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Simply put, tobacco kills. And the only way to stop its deadliness is to get people to kick their habit and stop kids from ever starting in the first place. A tobacco tax has been proven to do both—for every 10 percent increase in price, adult cigarette consumption goes down 4 percent and 7 percent more youth never pick up the smoking habit. And the fewer smokers there are, the less non-smokers will suffer the serious health hazard posed by secondhand smoke. 

 

How we did it: In 2008, Upstream commissioned an economic study by Frank Chalupka, a world-renowned economist, about the effects of a tobacco tax on low-income families. In 2009, Upstream as a member of the executive committee of TOFCO, advocated for a 60-cent tobacco tax to reduce smoking and fund tobacco cessation programs.