Health Ministry calls for tobacco costs to be doubled in Spain
Friday, June 3, 2011 @ 2:41 AM
THE DEPARTMENT of Health is proposing that the cost of cigarettes and other tobacco products be doubled to bring the price of tobacco in Spain into line with the UK and France. Presently Spain is one of the cheapest places to buy cigarettes in Europe, at about 4€ per packet.
The Deputy Director General of Health Promotion and Epidemiology, Rosa Ramirez, made a statement on Tuesday at a conference marking World No Smoking Day emphasising that Spain continues to supply cheap tobacco products and also supplies other European countries.
REVIEW
Ramirez also said that Spain has made a request to other European health ministries to review the regulation of so-called ‘electronic cigarettes’ advertised as being ‘risk free’ with regard to health yet remaining outside any legal framework.
The benefits of the non-smoking laws brought in at the beginning of the year were expounded upon, noting that hospital admissions of children suffering with asthma as a result of passive smoking were already significantly reduced, with figures under preparation to be published “later this year.”
It was acknowledged that the decision to raise the price on tobacco products did not lie with the Ministry for Health alone but with the Ministry of Finance.
PRICE WAR
The President of the Committee on Health, Gaspar Llamazares, noted that tobacco companies are now immersed in a “price war” to overcome the effects of the smoking ban and wanted to put an end to the myth that the state “profits” from the tobacco trade: “The effects of smoking costs Spain around €17,000 million – more than double the amount recovered in taxation of tobacco,” he said.
According to Llamazares, much remains to be done on taxes and treatments to encourage smoking addicts to give up the habit.
The President of the National Committee for Smoking Prevention, Francisco Rodríguez Lozano, pointed out that the low price of tobacco has “great influence” on young people in Spain to start smoking aged as young as 13. For this reason, the Committee supports the price hike.
Source: RTN