Carrots and sticks can lower risk

Public health measures to reduce smoking would have more success if policy makers intervened to curb the vast profitability of the tobacco industry, according to a story on medicalxpress.com citing new research.

The lucrative nature of the cigarette market, dominated by a small number of large shareholder-owned companies, was said to result in a vigorous fight against any new public health measures that could disrupt the companies’ profit-making.

The researchers from the University of Bath’s School of Management, UK, and the University of Ottawa, Canada, say governments should look to the success of past policies that have transitioned other industries towards products that are less harmful to health, such as the switch from leaded to unleaded petrol.

They suggest a new approach to competition policy and a range of ‘carrot and stick’ incentives including: tax differentials, which would place combustible products, such as cigarettes, at a marketplace disadvantage compared to less hazardous alternatives such as electronic cigarettes; giving companies tax credits for the development of lower risk products; and more direct measures such as price controls and product licensing that favours lower risk products.

The full story is at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-02-tobacco-industry-economic-incentives.html