Responding to Misinformation About Tobacco
Claim: The tobacco's toll numbers are way too high and the studies used to develop them are old.
The Facts: The numbers are the best we've got, based on data from research studies and the CDC. For the estimates of the financial burden of tobacco, the numbers are actually very low because they do not include healthcare costs caused by forms of tobacco use other than smoking (such as spit tobacco use). Additionally, the final figures have been rounded down to avoid overestimating.
Tobacco use kills more than 400,000 people each year in the United States, or more than the total number killed by AIDS, alcohol, motor vehicles, homicide, illegal drugs, and suicide combined. Even if the number of smoking related deaths were cut in half, smoking would still kill more people than all of these other causes.
Claim: Smoke-free laws harm business at restaurants and bars.
The Facts: Smoke-free laws do not harm restaurant and bar businesses. In fact, many studies show that the laws have no effect at all, and sometimes they even increase business. In Washington, sales at bars grew more in the two years after the smoke-free law was enacted than in the years before. Additionally, studies of smoke-free laws in California, Colorado, Massachusetts and New York City have found that smoke-free laws do not hurt restaurant profits.
As of October 2009, nearly 60 percent of the United States population lives in areas that have passed strong smoke-free laws covering restaurants and bars.
Smoke-free laws are important because there is overwhelming scientific evidence that secondhand tobacco smoke is a direct cause of lung cancer, heart disease and lung and bronchial infections. Smoke-free laws help protect restaurant and bar employees and customers from these harms.
Claim: Cigarette tax increases do not reduce youth smoking (or any smoking).
The Facts: Cigarette tax increases do reduce smoking rates. In fact, every 10 percent increase in the retail price of cigarettes reduces overall cigarette consumption by approximately three to five percent. Among youth, it reduces smoking by six or seven percent.
Actually, the cigarette companies have stated, both publicly and in internal company documents, that raising cigarette prices reduces smoking, especially among kids. The fact is well proven by scientific research and by the actual experiences of states that have raised their tax rates.
Claim: Cigarette tax increases will not save money because the tax increases will reduce the number of people dying early from smoking. That means more people will need healthcare and other services for a longer time.
The Facts: The average smoker actually has significantly higher total lifetime healthcare costs than the average nonsmoker, even though the average smoker dies a lot sooner than the average nonsmoker. So reducing smoking always reduces total healthcare costs.
Claim: What's next, raising taxes on fatty foods? Raising cigarette taxes is just the first step in the public health Nazi's plan to tax everything that is bad for you.
The Facts: There are strong, clear reasons to treat cigarettes and other tobacco products differently and more harshly than any other products. Tobacco products are the only products that cause disease, disability, and death when used exactly as intended and directed.
Claim: Cigarette tax increases will cause cigarette smuggling and black markets, which will decrease state revenue.
The Facts: Every state that has significantly increased its state cigarette tax rate has enjoyed substantial increases in state revenue. Additionally, there are simple, low-cost, steps a state can take to prevent cigarette smuggling or smoker tax evasion. One useful strategy is to use high-tech tax stamps that cannot be counterfeited.
Claim: Cigarette tax increases hurt poor people.
The Facts: Lower-income communities already suffer more from smoking-caused disease, disability, death, and costs. Higher cigarette taxes will help lower-income smokers quit and cut back, which will also reduce smoking-caused costs and harms to their families.
Smokers who quit or cut back because of a cigarette tax increase save a lot of money, and most of those who quit or cut back are low-income smokers. Also, polls have found strong support for tobacco tax increases among lower-income communities.
Claim: Smokers have a right to smoke if they want to. It's their choice. Smoke-free laws and tobacco tax increases take away their freedom.
The Facts: There is no right to smoke. No court has ever recognized smoking as a protected right. Plus, decreasing tobacco use is in the interest of public health.
Additionally, many smokers would like to quit smoking but cannot because they are addicted. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "research suggests that nicotine is as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol" and 70% of current U.S. adult smokers would like to quit smoking.
Also, smoking does not just harm the smoker. According to the CDC, nearly 50,000 Americans die each year from lung cancer and heart disease because of secondhand smoke exposure.
The sources for all of these facts, and other useful tobacco information, can be found in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids factsheets available on the Campaign's website at www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets. Additional information is available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention website at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco.
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