Do Smoking Bans Work?
June 25th, 2007
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
In recent years, smoking bans in public spaces have become hugely popular. Airlines industries, universities, government and private offices to now even bars and clubs–smokers have been virtually banished from the public space. There have even been demands for banning smoking in private homes! Even France and Germany, where smoking remains popular and socially acceptable, has joined the anti-smoking bandwagon. Among public health officials, there is near unanimity that smoking bans along with higher taxes are the best way curb smoking rates.
But do smoking bans work?
At least in the New York City, they have brought down the smoking rates.
They said that in 2002, about 1,305,000 city residents smoked, or about 21.6 percent of the adult population, and that in 2006, about 1,065,000 residents, or 17.5 percent, smoked. The study was based on interviews with 10,000 city residents and used the same measures that the C.D.C. uses. The sharpest drops were in the Bronx, where smoking dropped from 25.2 percent of the population to 19 percent, and in Manhattan, where the rate dropped from 21.2 percent to 16.1 percent. Staten Island was flat, at 27.3 percent in 2002 and 27.2 percent in 2006.
Interestingly enough, smoking bans and the fall in smoking rates hasn’t really affected the bottomline of Tobacco companies. In many cases, their profits have actually risen. According to a story in Guardian, the profits of tobacco major B.A.T rose 9% after the smoking ban in clubs and bars across U.K came into effect.While this may seem counterintuitive, the reasons are not far to seek; with increasing taxes and bans, the people who continue to smoke are hardcore smokers are ready to pay any cost for their habit. Hence, tobacco companies can easily raise prices without worrying about drop in sales.
However, we must remember that tobacco companies need constantly new customers to survive and prosper. And it is here higher taxes work best; young kids who may just be picking up the habit would be dissuaded by high prices.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!