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Updated August 2010
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Tax
on the RYO cigarette as smoked is still 30% less;
Many poor smokers
switch to RYOs, fatally delaying quitting
§
RYO cigarettes currently attract the same tax per
gram of tobacco content, as factory-made cigarettes. However NZ research
clearly shows that harm is not proportional to risk, but depends on how
the cigarette is smoked. RYO cigarettes contain 30% less tobacco, but are
smoked intensively, to product 25% more smoke per cigarette.
§
RYO cigarettes and factory-made cigarettes was found
to have the same risk per cigarette,1 – a 0.5 g RYO
cigarette raises carbon monoxide in the blood no differently than a
factory-made cigarette.1
§
Health risk is not based on tobacco content.
§
Tobacco tax should be based on the cigarette as it is
smoked, namely, a 0.5 g tobacco RYO cigarette, or a 0.7 g tobacco factory-made
cigarette.
______________________________________
§
Before
the tobacco tax increase in late April 2010, RYO cigarettes rolled thin (60
RYOs from a 30g pouch) cost 36% less than a factory-made cigarette. From
May 2010 onwards, they were still 30% cheaper.
§
Much
as before, when smokers of factory-made cigarettes want to quit, many
switch to smoking cheaper RYOs, thereby fatally postponing quitting.
§
Most
of the 5000 smokers who die each year, die from quitting too late –
and many of these from switching to cheaper RYOs.
§
Since
2000 End Smoking NZ has maintained that RYOs, even if rolled thin, should
cost the same as factory-made cigarettes, as the risk from smoking RYO or
factory-made cigarettes is the same.
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Roll- your- own (RYO) cigarettes and tobacco
·
Smokers
inhale equally toxic smoke from RYOs and factory-made cigarettes.1
(See below).
They are mostly smoked without filter, and the filters used are
ineffective against toxic gases.
·
Account
for a third of smokers’ deaths, and one in six of all Maori deaths.2
Smoking causes one third of all
Maori deaths2 and as RYO and manufactured cigarettes are
equally popular among Maori,3 at least half of all Maori smoking deaths, that is, one sixth
of all Maori deaths, are thus
probably due to smoking RYO cigarettes.
Table 1 shows that 66% of Maori smokers smoke RYOs all or some of
the time, as opposed to 52.6% of all smokers; and nearly half (47%) of
Maori smokers smoke only hand
rolled cigarettes, as opposed to 36.6% of all smokers.3
Table 1. Prevalence of smoking by type of
cigarette smoked, in Maori and total population; 2002, 2005
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As percentage of the population
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2002
|
2002
|
2002
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2002
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2005
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2005
|
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By Age group
|
15 and over
|
15 and over
|
15 and over
|
15 and over
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15 and over
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15-19 years
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By ethnicity and sex
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Maori males
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Maori females
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All Maori
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All, both sexes
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All, both sexes
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All, both sexes
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Smokers of any tobacco product
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A
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44.1
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54.6
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50.1
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25.0
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23.8
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21.1
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Smokers of any cigarette
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B
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42.6
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54.6
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49.5
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24.5
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23.4
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20.9
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Manufactured cigarette smoker, all
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C
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19.7
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30.6
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25.9
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15.4
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13.6
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9.1
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Hand rolled cigarette smoker all
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D
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31.0
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34.6
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33.1
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13.1
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13.1
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15.4
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Smokes both hand-rolled and manufactured cigarettes
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E=(d+c -b)
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8.1
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10.6
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9.5
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4.0
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3.3
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3.6
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As a percentage of the smoking
population
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|
|
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|
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Manufactured cigarette exclusively
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H=(c -e)/a
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26.2
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36.6
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32.6
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45.6
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43.3
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26.1
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Some use of hand rolled
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I= k-j
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18.7
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19.3
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19.2
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16.0
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15.5
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17.1
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Hand rolled cigarettes exclusively
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J=(d-e)/a
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51.9
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44.1
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47.0
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36.6
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41.2
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55.9
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All hand rolled
cigarette smokers
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K=d/a
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70.3
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63.4.
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66.1
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52.4
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55.0
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73.0
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Source: ACNielsen national smoking survey calendar year 2002;
Tobacco Trends, Ministry of Health 2006.
_Table 2. RYO prevalence, average daily consumption, average
cost of daily smoking, 2000-2006
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Year
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% of all adults smoking RYOs
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RYO as % of total smoking prevalence
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RYO consumption
/day /smoker
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Average tobacco per RYO cigarette
|
RYO
Cigarettes /RYO smoker per day
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Cost of RYO tobacco
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Cost of daily smoking
RYO
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Factory
made daily smoking
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RYO/
FM
Cost ratio
|
|
units
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%
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% / %
|
g tobacco
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g
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number
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$ /g
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$/day
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$/day
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Ratio
|
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2000
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14.9
|
57
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5.5
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0.54
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9.9
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0.45
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2.48
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7.62
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0.33
|
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2002
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13.3
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54
|
5.6
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0.54
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9.9
|
0.51
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2.73
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8.12
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0.34
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2004
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13.3
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57
|
5.4
|
?
|
?
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0.56
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3.00
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7.88
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0.38
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2005
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13.1
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53
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5.5
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?
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?
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0.59
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3.24
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7.56
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0.43
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2006
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11.2
|
48
|
6.6
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0.49
|
|
0.61
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4.03
|
9.42
|
0.43
|
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AC Nielsen smoking survey reports to the Ministry of Health,
1983-2005. Mixed use adjusted for.
Tobacco Use Survey 2006. Ministry of Health.
Statistics New Zealand tobacco products consumption per quarter,
1983-2006.
________________________________________________________________________________
1 Laugesen M, Epton M, Frampton C, Glover
M, Lea R. Hand-rolled cigarette smoking patterns, compared with factory-made
cigarette smoking in New Zealand men. BMC Public Health 2009, 9:194. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/194
2 Laugesen M, Clements M. Cigarette Smoking Mortality
among Māori 1954-2028. 1998. Wellington
: Te Puni Kōkiri.
3 ACNielsen national smoking survey
data, calendar year 2002. Wellington : Ministry of Health.
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Dr Murray Laugesen QSO chair; Prof Ross McCormick, Sir John Scott KBE, Trish
Fraser MPH, Dr Marewa Glover, Trustees
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