Tobacco.org

Death and the need for tobacco taxes / A global killer is ripping through the world's poorer countries largely unchecked. 

Opposition from the tobacco industry is an obvious obstacle to tobacco control. Spurious economic arguments against higher taxes have been debunked in the West, but are still commonly repeated in the finance ministries of developing countries. . . .

About 150 million to 180 million tobacco deaths would be avoided before 2050 if the proportion of adults in developing countries who quit smoking increases from below 5 per cent today to 30 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020 (like current quit rates in Canada). Because control policies deter children from starting, even greater benefits can be expected beyond 2050.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes". Yet we have a tax that could prevent hundreds of millions of premature deaths. It is time to use it.

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