Its president Frédéric Bizard recalls that “tobacco brings in approximately 13.7 billion euros in taxes, but costs more than 100 billion” and denounces a policy “99% focused on curative treatment”.
“We cannot make price increases the alpha and omega of an anti-tobacco policy”, estimates Wednesday December 13 on franceinfo Frédéric Bizard, economist and president of the Health Institute, while packs of cigarettes will be more expensive in January 2024. Their price will increase by 50 cents to 1 euro. Most cigarette manufacturers will pass on the full amount of taxes that are aligned with inflation. In 2022, according to data from Public Health France, 31.8% of 18-75 year olds report smoking, and 24.5% report smoking daily. Men (27.4%) smoke more on a daily basis than women (21.7%).
franceinfo: Pack of 20 cigarettes, for many brands, will go from 11 to 12 euros. Is this likely to make many smokers give up? ?
Frédéric Bizard: Relatively yes. There is a correlation between the price of cigarettes and the drop in consumption, it is indisputable. But correlation is not causation. We cannot make price increases the alpha and omega of a policy to combat tobacco.
“If you increase by 10%, in theory, you reduce consumption by 4%. But we see that these theories depend on the context.”
Frédéric Bizardat franceinfo
In France, over the past five years, we have increased by around 37%, the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes has gone from 8 euros to 11 euros. We should have had a drop of 15%, we had a drop of 5%.
So there is a limit to this policy…
It has limits that we know very well. A policy that is focused on supply is very insufficient. This is all a pretty anti-social policy. Necessary, but antisocial (daily tobacco consumption is highest among the third of the population with the lowest income, 33.6%, according to Public Health France). François Mitterrand rightly said that it is a tax on the poor. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, but you have to do it with tact and moderation. We have a policy that is 99% focused on curative care. A high price for packets of tobacco is repressive on the poor.
What should then be the heart of the plan to combat tobacco in France?
There are 25% of daily smokers in France. This is 40% more than the average for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and all comparable countries are below 20%.
“The countries that have been most successful are those that have invested massively in school health.”
Frédéric Bizard, economist and president of the Health Instituteat franceinfo
We have completely disinvested in school health and occupational health, which are the two pillars of an effective preventive policy.
What you recommend is that revenues go towards prevention and particularly in schools?
First, we must break a misconception in France, that is, thinking that tobacco makes money for the State. Tobacco brings in approximately 13.7 billion euros in taxes, but costs more than 100 billion. Cancer care costs amount to around twenty billion euros. So in fact, we are only feeding the oncology market, but without slowing down the flow of new smokers, and tomorrow the flow of deaths of future patients. It’s a lose-lose policy. We invest massively in care, but we do not invest in good health.