New figures show cost of smoking in the North East is £1.99 bn a year
Today, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has published new estimates showing that smoking costs the North East £1.99 billion a year. This includes:
- £1.23 billion in productivity costs including lost earnings due to ill health, unemployment, early deaths and expenditure on tobacco
- £82.3 million cost to the NHS including primary and secondary care
- £661 million in social care costs to local authorities, care by families and unmet social care needs
- £15 million in the costs of smoking-related fires
The costs of taxation recouped from tax on smoking are a tiny fraction of the overall costs at only around £306 million a year.
Fresh is calling now on the Government to impose a levy on the profits of the tobacco industry fuelling addiction to cover the costs of prevention and achieving a smokefree future free of the death and disease of tobacco.
Unchecked, this is a major barrier to the government’s ambition to boost economic growth. However, with planned legislation and the commitment to create a roadmap to a smokefree country, the government could make real progress in reducing this impact during the current parliament.
The health and economic impacts of smoking are disproportionately concentrated in the most deprived parts of the country, meaning that these areas stand to benefit the most from investment in stop smoking support. In the North East:
- 4,300 people die each year due to smoking – over 125,000 deaths since the year 2000
- Around 112,000 households fall below the poverty line after smoking expenses are taken into account
- Around 185,000 children live in smoking households
Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: “Smoking is still our key driver of health inequalities and biggest cause of cancer. Over 125,000 people in the North East have died from avoidable smoking illnesses since 2000.
“These figures show that it is now vital for the Government to continue to prioritise efforts to help people to stop smoking and also stop new generations getting hooked on lethal tobacco products.
“Smoking is now known to kill 2 out of 3 smokers early. This region has a clear vision for a Smokefree Future and a further levy on tobacco profits would help us achieve this to invest in prevention and further support for smokers to quit.”
Ex-smoker Sue Mountain, from South Tyneside, underwent laser treatment in 2012 after a biopsy revealed she had laryngeal cancer. The cancer returned in 2017 which required radiotherapy every day for four weeks.
Sue said: “It appalls me that the tobacco companies can addict our young ones to a lifetime of addiction to tobacco and make around £1 billion profit every year in the UK, whilst our NHS and local councils have to pick up the pieces from the damage caused.
“Like most people who smoke now or smoked, I started as a kid, before I realised how addictive it was. I don’t want my grandchildren to go through what I went through. I could have bought half a house on the money I spent on smoking. Instead, I spent it on an addiction that gave me cancer.
“But I’m one of the lucky ones. Smoking makes life a misery for many thousands of people who suffer from debilitating diseases before it kills them. It’s shocking that tobacco companies are making massive profits from an addiction that robs people of their lives and their health. I believe they need to pay for the damage they do and fund work to reduce smoking.”
Hazel Cheeseman, Chief Executive, ASH, said: “These figures show conclusively that tobacco should play no part in our country’s future. Tobacco companies make massive profits selling a lethal addiction which puts pressure on vital public services and the economy. A levy on the tobacco industry is urgently needed to accelerate progress towards a smokefree future, ending the harms from smoking for good.”
Howard Reed, Landman Economics who has undertaken much of the unpinning analysis for these costs said: “The ludicrous suggestion in some quarters is that reducing the tobacco market might damage public finances due to a decline in tax receipts. However, this is to see only a very fragmentary part of the picture. Smoking places additional burden on public finances and individual households that far outweighs any ‘benefit’ from tobacco taxes. The country will be better off without the sale of tobacco.”