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LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2015 | Volume
: 10
| Issue : 1 | Page : 74 |
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| Cigarette price and smoking |
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Sim Sai Tin1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2
1 Medical Science, Medical Center, Shantou, China
2 Tropical Medicine, Hainan Medical University, China
| Date of Web Publication | 12-Dec-2014 |
Correspondence Address:
Sim Sai Tin
Medical Science, Medical Center, Shantou
China
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1817-1737.146915
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How to cite this article:
Tin SS, Wiwanitkit V. Cigarette price and smoking. Ann Thorac Med 2015;10:74 |
Sir,
The report on "cigarette price and smoking" is very interesting. [1] Al-Mohrej et al. noted that "increasing the price of popular cigarettes pack from 2.67 US dollars to 8.27 US dollars is expected to lead to smoking cessation in a large number of smokers in the Saudi population. [1]" In fact, smoking is the public health problem around the world. There are several attempts to reduce the smoking rates. Several methods have been implemented for years. Focusing on the pricing, Smith et al. reported that "reduction in nicotine content is equivalent to a reduction in the reinforcement value of smoking-an assumption made by the unit price approach. [2]" However, this method has to be used accompanied with others. In Australia, the combined method, "stronger smoke-free laws, tobacco price increases and greater exposure to mass media campaigns" is confirmed for usefulness in reducing of smoking prevalence. [3] Finally, it should be noted that increasing cigarette price might reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking but the smoker might change to use other things (such as leafs) for smoking instead.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Al-Mohrej OA, AlTraif SI, Tamim HM, Fakhoury H. Will any future increase in cigarette price reduce smoking in Saudi Arabia?. Ann Thorac Med 2014;9:154-7.  [ PUBMED]  |
| 2. | Smith TT, Sved AF, Hatsukami DK, Donny EC. Nicotine reduction as an increase in the unit price of cigarettes: A behavioral economics approach. Prev Med 2014 Jul 13. pii: S0091-7435(14)00246-1. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.005. [Epub ahead of print]. |
| 3. | Wakefield MA, Coomber K, Durkin SJ, Scollo M, Bayly M, Spittal MJ, et al. Time series analysis of the impact of tobacco control policies on smoking prevalence among Australian adults, 2001-2011. Bull World Health Organ 2014;92:413-22. |
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