Nunavut study investigates influence of tobacco price on smoking behaviour

Monday, August 13, 2012

Increase the cost of cigarettes to snuff out smoking in Nunavut: study

"Price is the single most important influence on tobacco consumption levels, cessation and prevention"

JANE GEORGE

More than two of every three Nunavut Inuit smoke daily despite the increased risks to these smokers of developing tuberculosis, lung cancer and other illnesses, along with the high cost of a daily tobacco habit, which can range up to $6,000 a year for an individual smoker.

To reduce the number of smokers in Nunavut, a recent study urges the Government of Nunavut to enact “substantial tobacco price increases, indoor and outdoor smoke-free restrictions, underage purchasing restrictions, as well as mass media campaigns, evidence-based prevention and cessation programs,”  concludes a recent report called “Smoking: can it change? Supuutuqniq asitjirunnaqpaa.”

The GN will have to increase taxes on cigarettes to discourage many from smoking, this research study says.

There’s strong, evidence from around the world showing that “price is the single most important influence on tobacco consumption levels, cessation and prevention,”  says the study, prepared by Mary Jean Costello of the University of Waterloo, and researchers with the GN’s health and social services department.

Read full article at Nunatsiaq Online.