The State reports: Higher cigarette tax will make S.C. more physically and fiscally fit

Most people know that smoking carries a major health impact. A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health confirms that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It is a primary cause of lung cancer, heart and vascular disease and emphysema, is associated with many digestive cancers, bladder cancer, breast cancer, reproductive disturbances, is a contributor to age-related mental decline and so on.

Most, however, do not consider that smoking also exacts a significant fiscal toll on our state.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates that every pack of cigarettes sold generates $7 in smoking-related health-care costs and lost worker productivity. That cost is paid by every taxpayer, every private health insurance customer (individual and business) and by employers — regardless of whether any of them smoke or not. As such, smoking creates both physical loss in the form of damage to life and health, and fiscal loss in the form of medical treatment for smoking-related illness and lost worker productivity.

Some would consider this a hidden tax that every citizen pays to treat the deadly habit of a few.
One of the most effective ways to drive down this human and financial toll is to reduce the number of smokers by helping people choose not to smoke in the first place.

The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids says that every 10 percent increase in the real price of cigarettes reduces overall cigarette consumption by 3 percent to 5 percent. It reduces the number of young-adult smokers by 3.5 percent and the number of kids who smoke by between 6 percent and 7 percent. Cigarette price increases also reduce the number of teenagers who start smoking. That has an important long-term effect as 90 percent of smokers say they began smoking as a teenager.

The sooner South Carolina enacts an increase in the cigarette tax, the sooner our state starts to save lives and reduce the toll. We make an investment in our physical and financial health today and tomorrow. Fewer people begin to smoke, and more smokers quit. We, our children and grandchildren enjoy healthier, longer, more productive lives. We spend less emotion and money treating illness and disease.

The S.C. Tobacco Collaborative and our partners strongly urge our legislators to consider South Carolina’s physical and fiscal health, and pass the cigarette tax increase this session. We cannot afford to wait.

Mr. Bowie is executive director of the S.C. Tobacco Collaborative, a partnership of individuals, organizations and agencies committed to reducing the toll of tobacco use in South Carolina. He is a S.C. native and resident of Chapin.