Jump to full article: The Age (au), 2008-04-08
Author: Jewel Topsfield
Intro: SMOKING bans in restaurants and bars may be doing more harm than good by banishing smokers to homes where children's health could be affected.
And tax hikes on cigarettes may not improve the health of smokers, because smokers compensate by extracting more nicotine from each cigarette, according to research by British economists Francesca Cornaglia and Jerome Adda.
The pair analysed the nicotine levels of more than 30,000 non-smokers in the US between 1998 and 2001 following smoking bans in some states. They found that bans on public transport and in schools decreased exposure to nicotine, but bans in bars and restaurants increased exposure, notably among young children. . . .
In their paper, "Taxes, Cigarette Consumption and Smoking Intensity", the authors argued their findings questioned the usefulness of tax increases.
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