Price favors tobacco cigarettes

Combustible tobacco cigarettes cost less to purchase than do equivalent amounts of electronic cigarettes in 44 of 45 countries sampled around the world, according to a new American Cancer Society study reported by eurekalert.com.

The study, published by Tobacco Control, concludes that this pricing gap exists despite the fact that electronic cigarettes are not yet widely subjected to excise taxes comparable to those applied to combustible cigarettes.

The scientific literature and general media had repeatedly claimed that electronic cigarettes were a cheap, tax-advantaged product relative to heavily taxed combustible cigarettes, the study found, but these claims did not seem to be based on empirical price data.

The researchers warned that the pervasiveness of this claim might lead some policymakers to consider imposing electronic cigarette taxes on the basis of inaccurate information.

The researchers, led by Alex Liber of the American Cancer Society and the University of Michigan School of Public Health, compared the prices of combustible cigarettes to those of two major kinds of electronic cigarettes: disposable (non-refillable); and rechargeable (refillable with nicotine liquid).

The researchers found that on average the price of a pack of combustible tobacco cigarettes was just over half the price of a disposable electronic cigarette ($5.00 and $8.50, respectively).

They found also that while the price of the liquid nicotine used to refill electronic cigarettes could be a couple of dollars less than that of a pack of regular cigarettes, the minimum price to purchase a rechargeable electronic cigarette to use this liquid nicotine was more than $20. The rechargeable electronic cigarettes preferred by most daily electronic cigarette users retailed for even more