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A Timeline:
Health, Congress and the courts.
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"No other company in the world
would claim that killing its customers is good for
society."
Joe Cherner,
anti-smoking
advocate |
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Philip Morris: Dead Smokers Cheaper
Tobacco Co. Outlines Savings To Czech Gov't From Smokers'
Deaths
Company Is Lobbying Against Stricter Anti-Smoking
Regulations
Philip Morris 'Regrets' Impression Early Deaths Are A
Benefit
July 17, 2001
 |
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| AP |
| (CBS)
Sick smokers may burden a country's health care system, but
dead smokers save governments money.
That's the
conclusion of a study on the financial cost of smoking that
was commissioned by tobacco giant Philip Morris
The
company is lobbying the Czech government against stricter
health regulations on cigarettes with a study of "indirect
positive effects" of smoking, detailing "savings in public
health care costs and state pensions due to early mortality of
smokers."
"No other company in the world would claim
that killing its customers is good for society," said
anti-smoking advocate Joe Cherner.
That's right,
reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod, a company
that long denied smoking led to early deaths is now telling a
government it can save $30 million a year in health care,
housing and pensions it won't have to pay to smokers who die
before collecting.
Smoking rates in the Czech Republic
are above average but declining, and the government must adopt
some anti-smoking laws to join the European Union.
"Philip Morris is not going to sit still and watch the
Czech government prevent another generation of tobacco
addiction and cost Philip Morris money," said Cherner.
The study by research company Arthur D. Little
International concluded that the financial benefits to the
Czech government from duties and taxes paid by consumers,
importers and tobacco businesses outweighed the costs of
health care, lost working days and fires caused by cigarettes.
The government's net gain from the tobacco industry
was $146 million, it said.
Anti-tobacco groups said
the study was offensive because it suggested that retired
people have no value to society.
"Is it rational or
ethical for a society or a government to consider the
premature death of its population as preferable? We certainly
don't think so," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, coordinator of the
World Health Organization's negotiations on a tobacco control
treaty.
Remi Calvet, director of communications for
Philip Morris at its European headquarters in Lausanne,
Switzerland, said the report was simply a "classical economic
study" that was "aimed at providing data as part of the
ongoing debate on tobacco revenues and taxes."
"We
deeply regret any impression that premature death of smokers
could represent a benefit for society," he said.
Bettcher said the finding that cigarettes benefit the
economy is debatable. A World Bank report last year concluded
that it was relatively easy to quantify the economic benefits
of smoking, but much more difficult to measure the costs.
The Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
said the study proved that Philip Morris — which has run
television ads in the United States that advise teen-agers not
to smoke — was "a wolf in sheep's clothing."
"It's a
wolf that has the gall to tell a government that the early
deaths that result from their products are a good thing," said
Matthew Myers, the campaign's president. He said the analysis
represented "not only bad economics, but also a callous
disregard for life."
The Czech health ministry also
criticized the study.
"No government can calculate
with reports like that," said spokesman Otakar Cerny. "The
health minister leads an irreconcilable struggle with smoking
so that Czech citizens live long and healthy lives."
But some politicians in the Czech Republic — where
smoking is widespread and President Vaclav Havel, formerly a
heavy smoker, had surgery in 1996 for lung cancer — were less
critical.
Vlastimil Tlusty, chairman of the
parliament's budget committee, said smoking was an individual
decision and there was nothing wrong with telling people
health care costs on smokers are offset by early deaths.
Last year, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman said he
smoked cigarettes to boost the country's budget, citing
cigarette taxes and the chance he could die before reaching
pension age.
©MMI
CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The
Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this
report.
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