July 18, 2001 (The Daily Telegraph) - EARLY deaths through smoking
save the Czech government tens of millions of pounds a year in health
care, pensions and housing, according to Philip Morris, the world's
biggest cigarette company.
The report was commissioned by the makers of Marlboro, who control
80 per cent of the tobacco market in the Czech republic, to examine
the overall cost of smoking to the government.
Putting the best possible gloss on the health problems that the
tobacco industry has only just admitted, the report claimed that
between pounds 17 million and pounds 21 million was saved in 1999
because smokers died years before their normal life expectancy.
In its efforts to promote the wealth benefits of smoking to
governments, the report by Arthur D Little, a consulting firm,
stressed its health deficits.
It quoted a 1997 Dutch report that said smokers lived on average
4.73 years less than non-smokers and a 1990 American report that put
the figure at 5.23 years of "lost life". The report favoured the
latter as being the more accurate estimate.
The Czech government profited by pounds 104 million from smoking,
even after the cost of treating sick smokers was taken into account.
"Our principal finding is that the negative financial effects of
smoking, such as increased health care costs, are more than offset by
positive effects (such as excise tax and VAT collected on tobacco
products)," the report said.
A significant factor in the "positive" effects of smoking was the
savings derived from not having dead smokers using up public services
such as hospital beds and old people's homes.
"We calculated pension savings by multiplying the old age pension
and insurance paid from the state budget per pensioner per year by
the number of dead smokers of pension age in 1999," the report said.
In the interests of balance, it added that the Czech exchequer
lost pounds 24 million in income tax smokers would have paid if they
had not succumbed to tobacco-related illnesses.
The research company also said that the estimated savings in
health care costs that dead smokers passed on to the rest of society
was probably on the low side because it cost more to treat a live
smoker than a non-smoker.
"In this respect, it can also be argued that the savings are even
higher as the shortening of life means a reduction in the number of
old patients, whose treatment is more costly than average."
The findings will give Czechs much to ponder, particularly in
light of the estimated pounds 710,000 spent on medical treatment for
the lung cancer of President Vaclav Havel, a chain smoker. The
government in Prague is considering imposing heavier taxes on tobacco
and banning advertising for cigarettes to bring them into line with
the EU, which Czechs hope to join.
The report, delivered some months ago, was condemned by anti-
smoking activists after its contents were publicised yesterday. John
Connolly of Action on Smoking and Health in Britain, said: "The whole
exercise is repellent and should be dismissed.
"Philip Morris is whispering in the ear of the Czech government,
saying: `Look, we can help you deal with those expensive old people,
so why don't you go easy on controlling smoking?"
The British government will receive pounds 7.5 billion this year
from tobacco duties, and spend a minimum of pounds 1.5 billion on
treating smoking-related illnesses.
