The Price of Smoking
The taxes that the government collected—and has yet to collect—have its price.
Smoking has been linked to several otherwise preventable diseases that the Department of Health (DOH) has identified as among the leading causes of deaths in the country. Most of these diseases are connected to the pulmonary system, like lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases or COPD (or diseases that obstruct the flow of air in the lungs). Other diseases associated with tobacco use are coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer of the lips, nose, or larynx.
Even cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris International, in their official website, acknowledges that tobacco use may result to serious diseases: “We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema (a type of COPD causing shortness of breath) and other serious diseases in smokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than non-smokers. There is no ‘safe’ cigarette.”
In a study in 1999, Dr. Dans, a professor of medicine and clinical epidemiology at UP, estimated that the country would lose P46 billion annually from smoking related-diseases—P27 billion for treatment, P1 billion in lost wages due to smokers’ absence from work when they get ill, and P18 billion in productivity losses caused by premature deaths.
By 2003, the health and economic cost had ballooned to three times, rising to an average of P148.5 billion a year, this time according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) published in 2006.
Healthcare cost for the four major smoking-related diseases (chronic obstructive lung diseases, heart attacks, lung cancer, and stroke) was at P26.1 billion; lost wages due to sick smokers’ absences, P6.3 billion; and productivity loss due to premature deaths, P116 billion.
