Death, Sickness and the High Cost of Smoking
Disease Burden and Cost of Cigarette Smoking Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Center (TRC) Release Date: For immediate publication (Tel. 02 3545346)
Death, Sickness and the High Cost of Smoking
Recent research results show that smoking is a cause of death, sickness and disease that burdens both patients and the government through expenses of up to 5,000 billion baht each year. Since almost half of smokers in Thailand use roll your own cigarettes (RYO cigarettes), the government should collect tobacco taxes on local shredded tobacco to reduce RYO cigarette smoking.
On 5 March 2012, the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Center (TRC) funded by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), together with International Health Policy Program, Thailand, Ministry of Public Health, and the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, Thailand, held a press conference titled, Disease Burden and Cost of Cigarette Smokingat Ramagardent Hotel, Bangkok. Prof., Dr. Prakit Vathesatogkit, Executive Secretary of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, Thailand emphasized that smoking is a major cause of death and sickness that can be prevented. The number of deaths caused by smoking worldwide is 5.4 million each year and another 600,000 people lose their lives because of secondhand smoke. Among 8 diseases that are causes of death, 6 are caused in part by cigarette smoking. According to current smoking trends worldwide, the number of deaths caused by smoking will increase to 8 million people by 2573. For Thailand, the number of Thai deaths caused by smoking was 45,136 in 2004 and 50,710 in 2009. According to current smoking trends and aging current smokers in Thailand, Sir Richard Peto, Oxford University, has predicted the number of deaths caused by smoking among Thai people will increase to 80,000 each year. In the US, the number of deaths caused by smoking is 443,000 each year, and the economic loss is 203 billion US dollars (6,090 billion baht or 3 times Thailands entire budget each year).
Dr. Kanittha Boonthamjaroen, Head of the Index Development Strategy Plan for the evaluation of disease burden and health of the Thai people, presented information compiled for the Index Development Strategy Plan to evaluate disease burden and health of Thai people showing that the economic loss to Thailand from smoking-related diseases was 52.2 billion baht in 2009, or 0.5% of GDP. This economic loss is due to: Medical expenses (10,137 million baht or 20%), Indirect medical expenses (1,063 million baht or 2%), Productivity loss caused by absence for sickness of employees (370 million baht or 0.7%), Productivity loss caused by absence of patient caregivers (147 million baht or 0.3%), and Productivity loss caused by premature deaths (40,464 million baht or 77%). Together, these economic losses total 13% of all health expenses. Calculating Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) caused by smoking, shows that smokers live shorter lives byyears. Smoking causes Thais to lose 628,061 DALY by premature death and 127,148 DALY through disability years lost. This information indicates the heavy disease burden incurred by both patients and the government, not to mention losses from second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure.
Dr. Siriwan Pitayarangsarit, Director of Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Center (TRC), Mahidol University, indicates that this huge economic loss (5,000 billion baht) is caused by smoking-related diseases of smokers of manufactured and RYO cigarettes. The portion of RYO smokers is 46.5% of all smokers. The government has earned less income from RYO taxes while assuming almost half of the costs from RYO smoking. Almost half of patients with smoking-related diseases are RYO patients who smoke local shredded tobacco which is not subject to tobacco tax. For this reason, the government should urgently include local tobacco in the tax system which would require tobacco producers to pay tobacco taxes, not tobacco farmers. To make this change requires modification of the Tobacco Act B.E. 2539 (1996) enacted as a Royal regulation.
To request more information, please contact:
Haris Thaweepatana, TRC Academic staff Tel.: 0-2354-5346, 089-662-7917 Fax.: 0-2354-5347, E-mail: beer_manububu@windowslive.com
