Written by Stuart Stevens | Wednesday, 09 April 2008 | There are 0 comments
In Europe the number of people smoking is going down every year
According to Bungon Ritthiphakdee who is the director of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance based in Bangkok higher taxes not only encouraged existing smokers to quit but also discouraged non smokers from starting in the first place. The World Bank said that government should put a tax of over 65 percent on cigarettes as researchers had shown that at this point the number of people smoking starts to reduce and the tax received by the government continues to rise.
The World Health Organisation meeting was part of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in which smoking cessation experts and government officials swap ideas and initiatives to control the growing problem of cigarette smoking in Asia.
In Europe the number of people smoking is going down every year however tobacco companies are still making vast profits by selling cigarettes to the Far East where the market for smoking still has the potential to grow.
Thailand is one of the few Asian countries in which the tobacco industry has not grown as over the last fifteen years and the number of cigarettes sold has reduced. In that time the government has put up taxes on cigarettes from 55 percent to 80 percent and this is largely the reason why cigarette smoking has lowered.
There will always be some people who continue to smoke no matter how many taxes are put on cigarettes and so taxes are not the only answer to beat problem of smoking. Governments should also invest in education and awareness about the dangers of smoking and should offer subsidised medication and smoking cessation counselling. A ban on smoking in public places has also been seen to be extremely effective in lowering the number of people who smoke.
