New Labour moves against tobacco profits

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Dec 10 09:20:50 PST 1998


christian a. gregory wrote:


>i don't get this at all. the state bans advertising, subsidizes patches, and
>trots out a policy statement and somehow this counts as a move against
>profits?

Nothing like an anti-smoking campaign to get kids to start smoking. Says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control <http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00055070.htm>:


>Among persons aged 12-17 years, the incidence of first cigarette use
>decreased from 1974 (132.2) to 1987 (98.6) and increased from 1988 (107.0)
>to 1995 (139.1) (Table_1). For persons aged 18-25 years, first use
>decreased from the late 1960s through the late 1980s and increased during
>the 1990s. For persons aged 5-11 years and 26-34 years, first use was less
>than 23 throughout the study period.
>
>Among persons aged 12-17 years, the incidence of first daily cigarette use
>fluctuated from 1966 (42.6) to 1983 (43.8) and gradually increased from
>1988 (51.2) to 1996 (77.0) (Table_1). For persons aged 18-25 years, first
>daily use generally decreased from the 1960s through the early 1990s and
>then stabilized. First daily use among persons aged 12-17 years was
>equivalent to that of persons aged 18-25 years during the late 1980s.
>Among persons aged 26-34 years, first daily use decreased from 1974 (23.7)
>to 1996 (7.5). During 1965-1988, first daily use was less than 4.3 for
>persons aged 5-11 years.
>
>The number of new smokers in the United States increased from the 1980s to
>1995 and 1996. The number of persons aged less than 18 years who first
>smoked a cigarette was 1,929,000 (95% CI=plus or minus 153,000) in 1988,
>2,175,000 (95% CI=plus or minus 180,000) in 1993, 2,392,000 (95% CI=plus
>or minus 231,000) in 1994, and 2,441,000 (95% CI=plus or minus 298,000) in
>1995. The number of persons aged less than 18 years who first smoked daily
>was 708,000 (95% CI=plus or minus 84,000) in 1988, 897,000 (95% CI=plus or
>minus 100,000) in 1993, 1,056,000 (95% CI=plus or minus 112,000) in 1994,
>1,174,000 (95% CI=plus or minus 163,000) in 1995, and 1,226,000 (95%
>CI=plus or minus 196,000) in 1996. In 1995, 3,263,000 persons of all ages
>first smoked a cigarette; of these, 2,441,000 (74.8%) were aged less than
>18 years. In 1996, 1,851,000 persons of all ages became daily smokers; of
>these, 1,226,000 (66.2%) were aged less than 18 years. If the incidence of
>initiation had not increased during 1988-1996, approximately 1,492,000
>fewer persons aged less than 18 years would have been daily smokers by
>1996.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list