A new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, examined the global effects of smoking, quitting, and taxing tobacco.  Researchers examined the current smoking patterns, with a global average of about 50% of young men and 10% of young women becoming smokers and relatively few stopping.  Using this trend, the annual number of deaths attributable to tobacco will rise from about 5 million in 2010 to more than 10 million in a few decades.

These changes are due partly to population growth and partly to the fact that, in some large populations, generations in which few people smoked substantial numbers of cigarettes throughout adult life are being succeeded by generations in which many people did so.  There were about 100 million deaths from tobacco in the 20th century, most in developed countries.  If current smoking patterns persist, tobacco will kill about 1 billion people this century, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. About half of these deaths will occur before the people are 70 years of age.

In general, most countries use nonprice interventions to try and reduce the use of tobacco.  Mauritius, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, and Turkey are four countries that have been using large increases in specific taxes on tobacco to reduce smoking levels.  However, tobacco manufacturers have been spreading misleading information about these taxes and non-profit organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been investing resources to remedy the misinformation.

In fact, according to Voice of America, the tobacco industry makes approximately $50 billion in profits every year.  That amounts to $10,000 per tobacco-related death.  Those profits go to lobbying against further taxation and trying to draw in more users.  With such deep pockets, it becomes challenging for regulators to intervene.  However, this study found that a large increase in taxes would make a significant impact.  Specifically, tripling taxes would cut a third of the tobacco industry’s profits and save up to 200 million lives.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 43.8 million people in the U.S., or 19 percent of adults, smoke cigarettes.  Smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S., accounting for 20 percent of all deaths.  The CDC encourages smoking cessation because it reduces the risk for cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, respiratory conditions, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and infertility.  Electronic cigarettes may prove useful in helping people quit smoking.