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Release Date: Wednesday 9 April,
2003
SMOKING
COSTS AUSTRALIA MORE THAN ALCOHOL AND DRUGS COMBINED
Smoking costs Australia over $21 billion in a
year, and these costs are being borne by government,
business and individuals, according to an Australian
health economist. Helen Lapsley from the University
of New South Wales and co-author together with
David Collins of the recent report Counting the
costs; estimates of the social costs of drug abuse
in Australia in 1998-9, presented figures on the
costs of smoking in Australia at the 2nd Australian
Tobacco Control Conference in Melbourne today.
In the financial year 1998/99 smoking resulted
in the deaths of over 19,000 Australians and accounted
for almost one million hospital bed days. Ms Lapsley
says the social costs of tobacco use accounts
for around 60% of the costs of all drug abuse
in Australia. "In 1998/9, the total cost
of tobacco use in Australia was over $21 billion."
"This is almost three times than the cost
of illicit drug abuse, at around $6 billion, and
significantly higher than the costs of alcohol
abuse which is about $7.5 billion. "This
does not include costs that can't be currently
quantified, such as the cost of pain and suffering,
some health effects of passive smoking, and reduced
productivity of smokers through absenteeism."
Lapsley and Collins say that almost half of the
social costs of tobacco use can be avoided. Their
calculations also measure the impact of tobacco
taxes on government coffers. "Clearly, smoking
taxes also contribute to government revenue, but
revenue gain is not the same as social benefit."
"In high tobacco tax countries, revenue from
tobacco tax can exceed the tobacco-attributable
public expenditures, but this does not indicate
that there are net social benefits from smoking."
"The important question we need to ask is
not 'do smokers pay their way?' but 'does the
tobacco industry pay its way?" Counting the
costs; estimates of the social costs of drug abuse
in Australia in 1998-9 by David J Collins and
Helen M Lapsley can be found at www.health.gov.au/pubhlth/publicat/document/mono49.pdf
For more information please contact Zoe Furman
on (03) 9635 5517 or email zoe.furman@cancervic.org.au
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