Death and taxes
All taxes have the intention of raising money for governments. Some, though, are supposed to have the further aim of influencing us towards social or individual better behaviour.
Green taxes are one such example, whereby taxation is used to seek to influence public behaviour to be more environmentally friendly. Hence, increasing taxes on vehicles according to higher degrees of carbon dioxide emissions is hoped to encourage people to buy and drive less polluting vehicles, although it is of course debatable whether someone who is prepared to pay £50,000 for a five litre Mercedes is going to be much deterred by a few hundred pounds on the road tax.
Another form of this behavioural taxation is where there is an intention to encourage people into more healthy lifestyles. Increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol have been argued for on this basis, in the hope that higher taxes on these products will discourage people from buying them and help them to become healthier. International evidence suggests that increased taxes are the most effective single intervention to reduce smoking levels.
With estimates of around 100,000 smoking related deaths per year in the UK, encouraging people to stop smoking has been a major public health concern for many years now, with much success in helping people to stop smoking. Large increases in taxation on tobacco products have very been significant in these efforts.
Perhaps it is time now though to review how much farther taxation on cigarettes can go in contributing to smoking cessation and health improvement goals. Indeed, to reduce heath inequalities it may even be time to reduce these taxes.
There are very worrying public health warnings about counterfeit cigarettes flooding the market. Since it has been estimated that around 25% of cigarettes smoked in the UK avoid taxation, it can be seen that black market and counterfeit tobacco is a problem. Not being subject to any regulation or quality controls, laboratory tests have found that these products are often contaminated with very poisonous substances – potentially more poisonous than those usually found in tobacco itself. It may be that higher taxes are no longer encouraging enough existing smokers to quit and instead may be driving them to smoke more harmful counterfeit cigarettes – driving them to even earlier deaths.
With smoking prevalence in the West Midlands being estimated as between around 20 to 27% of the adult population smoking issues are significant for the region. Estimates by the West Midlands Regional Observatory suggest that proportionally more of the population in deprived areas smoke (nearly 30%), compared to those in more affluent areas (around 12%). Hence, any ill effects from higher tobacco taxes encouraging people to consume more highly toxic counterfeit cigarettes will disproportionally affect poorer people that we already know to have generally poor health and shorter life spans.
Wealthier people are unlikely to avoid smoking because of high taxation. It is much more probable that the health information on smoking has got through to them, either because of where it is provided or because the find the messages contained easier to understand. We need to work out much more effective ways of getting those messages through to the less privileged, rather than continuing with the blunt weapon of higher taxation.
Are health taxes increasing health inequalities? It is time for a review.
Green taxes are one such example, whereby taxation is used to seek to influence public behaviour to be more environmentally friendly. Hence, increasing taxes on vehicles according to higher degrees of carbon dioxide emissions is hoped to encourage people to buy and drive less polluting vehicles, although it is of course debatable whether someone who is prepared to pay £50,000 for a five litre Mercedes is going to be much deterred by a few hundred pounds on the road tax.
Another form of this behavioural taxation is where there is an intention to encourage people into more healthy lifestyles. Increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol have been argued for on this basis, in the hope that higher taxes on these products will discourage people from buying them and help them to become healthier. International evidence suggests that increased taxes are the most effective single intervention to reduce smoking levels.
With estimates of around 100,000 smoking related deaths per year in the UK, encouraging people to stop smoking has been a major public health concern for many years now, with much success in helping people to stop smoking. Large increases in taxation on tobacco products have very been significant in these efforts.
Perhaps it is time now though to review how much farther taxation on cigarettes can go in contributing to smoking cessation and health improvement goals. Indeed, to reduce heath inequalities it may even be time to reduce these taxes.
There are very worrying public health warnings about counterfeit cigarettes flooding the market. Since it has been estimated that around 25% of cigarettes smoked in the UK avoid taxation, it can be seen that black market and counterfeit tobacco is a problem. Not being subject to any regulation or quality controls, laboratory tests have found that these products are often contaminated with very poisonous substances – potentially more poisonous than those usually found in tobacco itself. It may be that higher taxes are no longer encouraging enough existing smokers to quit and instead may be driving them to smoke more harmful counterfeit cigarettes – driving them to even earlier deaths.
With smoking prevalence in the West Midlands being estimated as between around 20 to 27% of the adult population smoking issues are significant for the region. Estimates by the West Midlands Regional Observatory suggest that proportionally more of the population in deprived areas smoke (nearly 30%), compared to those in more affluent areas (around 12%). Hence, any ill effects from higher tobacco taxes encouraging people to consume more highly toxic counterfeit cigarettes will disproportionally affect poorer people that we already know to have generally poor health and shorter life spans.
Wealthier people are unlikely to avoid smoking because of high taxation. It is much more probable that the health information on smoking has got through to them, either because of where it is provided or because the find the messages contained easier to understand. We need to work out much more effective ways of getting those messages through to the less privileged, rather than continuing with the blunt weapon of higher taxation.
Are health taxes increasing health inequalities? It is time for a review.
