The public health group American Cancer Society (ACS) urged state governments to tighten control and increase duties on tobacco products based on two in-house studies that quantify the potential impact.

States could save as more than 2 million lives and as much as USD 2 billion in healthcare costs by adopting strong tobacco control policies, suggest two reports released simultaneously by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) .
The studies named “Saving Lives, Saving Money” projected the impact of tobacco control policies if adopted in the 27 states that presently have no or weak smoking bans. More than 1 million adults would quit smoking and 400,000 youths would never start; more than 600,000 lives could be saved and state economies would save roughly USD 1.3 billion (EUR 907 million) in tobacco-related health care costs, according to ACS.
The second study projects that an increase of USD 1.00 in the tobacco tax in all 50 states would cause roughly 1.4 million adults to quit, stop 1.7 million youth from starting, and save 1.3 million lives. Such an increase would result in USD 25.7 billion in tax revenue (a 54 per cent increase over current revenue) and, over five years, save more than USD 645 million in health treatment costs.
“Strong state tobacco control policies aren’t just a good idea in stemming the tide of the tobacco pandemic – they’re a necessity,” said John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the ACS Cancer Action Network (CAN). ( pi)