Tuesday will be a momentous day in the future of Wisconsin's health - and, especially, the future health of our children. That's the day the price of cigarettes in Wisconsin rises to more than $6 per pack.
It will be the strongest signal yet to smokers around the state that it is time to quit. It is the strongest market signal yet to our children not to take up smoking in the first place.
On Tuesday, the price of a pack of cigarettes jumps another 75 cents. That new tax, added to the federal tax increase in April, makes total taxes on a pack of cigarettes $3.53 - and a total price of $6 to $7 per pack.
There will be some bitter complaints about this, and they're understandable.
That's an enormous tax on the fifth of adults in this state who smoke, many of whom are lower-income. (About a third of lower-income adults smoke.) There also are those who argue that the state is balancing its budget on the backs of smokers.
But these arguments cloud the purpose of increasing the price of cigarettes.
In public health, we view a cigarette tax increase solely as a market incentive to quit smoking - or to avoid the addiction in the first place.
Tobacco-related diseases are the single largest cause of preventable illness in the state. Tobacco-related diseases cost Wisconsin taxpayers and businesses more than $2 billion in medical bills - money we all pay through our taxes and insurance premiums. Tobacco-related diseases also cost Wisconsin's economy more than $1 billion in lost worker productivity.
So, even on Tuesday, the new price for a pack of cigarettes still will be easily outstripped by its actual health-related cost to society - $9.53 per pack.
In a perfect world, the cigarette tax would raise no money because no one would smoke. If that happened, our state health care providers and our economy still would be money ahead. (Taxpayer-funded health care to treat smoking-related diseases alone cost about a half a billion dollars, a tax of nearly $600 per household in Wisconsin.)
We all pay for the cost of tobacco addiction. So dramatically reducing smoking rates is in our collective public health interest. It's in our state's economic interest. And it's in our own financial interest.
That is why Sept. 1 is an exciting day.
This is a day many smokers - tens of thousands of them - will review the cost of their habit and take action to quit. As many as 17,000 are expected to quit for good.
It is a day when school children pull out their pockets and realize they don't have the money to smoke - and they certainly don't have the funds for a daily cigarette addiction. The increase alone means 33,000 children alive today won't smoke.
To be sure, smokers will need help. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin, so we know quitting the habit is not easy for most smokers. We're inviting smokers to call the American Lung Association in Wisconsin's free Lung Helpline for cessation counseling at 1-800-LUNG-USA, and consult their doctors, as they can provide other interventions, including drug therapies that can ease the way for smokers to dump their addiction.
We also know children need help. We need to reinforce that smoking is little more than an expensive, cancerous, teeth-rotting way to shorten your life, dissipate your physical abilities and eviscerate your youthful looks.
In this context, it borders on tragic that the Legislature wiped out 55 percent of the state's tobacco control program for adults and children. Now is the time smokers truly need it most. Now is the time our children need it most.
On this momentous day for public health, we're strongly encouraging smokers to get help to quit.
Quitting would improve peoples' health, lengthen their lives, eliminate their cigarette tax burden, send a strong signal to their children that smoking is a horrible choice, and it would reduce the burden of tobacco on Wisconsin's medical system, its taxpayers and its economy.
Sept. 1 is time to quit smoking. Call 1-800-LUNG-USA for help.
- Donna Wininsky is director of Public Policy and Communications for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin and president of the SmokeFree Wisconsin Board of Directors.
It will be the strongest signal yet to smokers around the state that it is time to quit. It is the strongest market signal yet to our children not to take up smoking in the first place.
On Tuesday, the price of a pack of cigarettes jumps another 75 cents. That new tax, added to the federal tax increase in April, makes total taxes on a pack of cigarettes $3.53 - and a total price of $6 to $7 per pack.
There will be some bitter complaints about this, and they're understandable.
That's an enormous tax on the fifth of adults in this state who smoke, many of whom are lower-income. (About a third of lower-income adults smoke.) There also are those who argue that the state is balancing its budget on the backs of smokers.
But these arguments cloud the purpose of increasing the price of cigarettes.
In public health, we view a cigarette tax increase solely as a market incentive to quit smoking - or to avoid the addiction in the first place.
Tobacco-related diseases are the single largest cause of preventable illness in the state. Tobacco-related diseases cost Wisconsin taxpayers and businesses more than $2 billion in medical bills - money we all pay through our taxes and insurance premiums. Tobacco-related diseases also cost Wisconsin's economy more than $1 billion in lost worker productivity.
So, even on Tuesday, the new price for a pack of cigarettes still will be easily outstripped by its actual health-related cost to society - $9.53 per pack.
In a perfect world, the cigarette tax would raise no money because no one would smoke. If that happened, our state health care providers and our economy still would be money ahead. (Taxpayer-funded health care to treat smoking-related diseases alone cost about a half a billion dollars, a tax of nearly $600 per household in Wisconsin.)
We all pay for the cost of tobacco addiction. So dramatically reducing smoking rates is in our collective public health interest. It's in our state's economic interest. And it's in our own financial interest.
That is why Sept. 1 is an exciting day.
This is a day many smokers - tens of thousands of them - will review the cost of their habit and take action to quit. As many as 17,000 are expected to quit for good.
It is a day when school children pull out their pockets and realize they don't have the money to smoke - and they certainly don't have the funds for a daily cigarette addiction. The increase alone means 33,000 children alive today won't smoke.
To be sure, smokers will need help. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin, so we know quitting the habit is not easy for most smokers. We're inviting smokers to call the American Lung Association in Wisconsin's free Lung Helpline for cessation counseling at 1-800-LUNG-USA, and consult their doctors, as they can provide other interventions, including drug therapies that can ease the way for smokers to dump their addiction.
We also know children need help. We need to reinforce that smoking is little more than an expensive, cancerous, teeth-rotting way to shorten your life, dissipate your physical abilities and eviscerate your youthful looks.
In this context, it borders on tragic that the Legislature wiped out 55 percent of the state's tobacco control program for adults and children. Now is the time smokers truly need it most. Now is the time our children need it most.
On this momentous day for public health, we're strongly encouraging smokers to get help to quit.
Quitting would improve peoples' health, lengthen their lives, eliminate their cigarette tax burden, send a strong signal to their children that smoking is a horrible choice, and it would reduce the burden of tobacco on Wisconsin's medical system, its taxpayers and its economy.
Sept. 1 is time to quit smoking. Call 1-800-LUNG-USA for help.
- Donna Wininsky is director of Public Policy and Communications for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin and president of the SmokeFree Wisconsin Board of Directors.
