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Smuggled tobacco 'kills more than illicit drugs'

10/10/2008

Four times more people die from the effects of smuggled tobacco than from illicit drugs, a report has found.

A study published in the British Medical Journal today, conducted by Cancer Research UK experts, claims that four thousand deaths could be prevented in the UK each year if tobacco smuggling was abolished.

The authors claim that low income smokers are more likely to smoke smuggled cigarettes and that people from lower income backgrounds are twice as likely to die from smoking related illnesses compared to people from high income backgrounds.

Robert West, from Cancer Research, said: "Smuggled tobacco is more dangerous than duty-paid tobacco because it brings tobacco onto the market cheaply, making cigarettes more affordable. Cost is a major deterrent to smoking and the availability of cheap cigarettes, often for sale at half to a third of their official price, removes or greatly weakens the price incentive to quit.

"If we are to lower smoking rates and reduce health inequalities in this country, the government needs to treat tobacco smuggling as a national emergency and act now to stop the trade."

Official figures from HM Customs and Revenue (HMRC) claim that 22 per cent of all the tobacco smoked in the UK is smuggled into the country, representing 18 billion cigarettes out of the total 82 billion.

The authors of today's report estimated that if authorities were able to eliminate the smuggling of tobacco the total number of cigarettes would fall by five per cent and 4,000 fewer people would die from the effects of smoking.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: "A further crackdown on smuggling is necessary."

She called on the government to publish new targets and make them a joint responsibility for HMRC and the UK Border Agency, so they can be held accountable for their performance in reducing smuggling.

Jean King, director of tobacco control at Cancer Research UK, described the government's response to tobacco smuggling as "weak" and described smoking as the "single biggest preventable cause of cancer".