Something to cheer

Declining tobacco revenues

Evidence of health hazards of cigarette smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption is mounting. According to Cancer Research UK, tobacco was responsible for over 100 million worldwide deaths in the 20th century. It could cause a billion deaths in the 21st century, the World Health Organization ominously warns.

Smoking is responsible not only for lung cancer, as is commonly believed. It also increases the risk of at least 13 other cancers including cancers of the larynx, mouth, pharynx (throat), pancreas and some types of blood cancer. As in the rest of the world, cancer contributes to countless untimely deaths in Nepal. Again, according to WHO, 16,000 Nepalis die from tobacco consumption annually—90 percent of them due to the dreaded lung cancer. This is not surprising. WHO estimates that one in two men and one in three women in Nepal consume tobacco product, of one kind or the other. However, thanks to strong anti-tobacco legislation, there is now a silver lining in the fight against cancer.

According to Inland Revenue Department, excise revenue from tobacco products declined by five percent in the first eight months of this fiscal. This is significant reduction, and a classic illustration of the supply-demand market dynamic. Decline in tobacco consumption has forced cigarette manufactures to cut production. As the demand for expensive cigarettes, whose packets now come with graphic images of cancerous lungs, has declined, so has the supply. Of course, part of the decline of excise revenues could also be attributed to illegal import of cigarette and tobacco products, which is believed to have increased in recent times.

But even health experts acknowledge that part of the decline can be traced to reduced consumption following new directives on graphic displays on cigarette packets. Anti-smoking initiatives of the last few years, it seems, are starting to pay off. However, much more could be done.

The Supreme Court in 2011 had ordered all tobacco-product manufacturers to have pictorial warnings over 75 percent of cigarette packet. An anti-smoking law was enacted the same year, which mandated a fine of Rs 100 for people smoking in public places and fine of up to Rs 100,000 for those promoting or advertising tobacco products. But photos of infected lungs on cigarette packets began appearing only last May.

There were also some reports of police fining people smoking in public, but this practice was not continued. This is probably the reason such initiatives have failed to have the desired impact. People are seen openly flouting the law as they blissfully puff away out on the road and in our public parks.

Thus while expanding the coverage of pictorial warning to 90 percent (from May 15), we also need to strictly enforce the ban on smoking in public, something which has been tried with remarkable success in many countries, from Australia to the US. We will never be able to stop all our smokers from lighting up once a while, but evidence is mounting that well-targeted government initiatives will at least make them think twice when the itch strikes.