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5.8 trillion
cigarettes were sold to more than 1 billion smokers worldwide in the last ten years
$156 billion
in lost productivity from tobacco use annually between 2009-2012
$170 billion
of annual healthcare spending in the U.S. can be attributed to cigarette smoking
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Recent Research
August 2017
Recommendations for the Implementation of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 14 on Tobacco Cessation Support »
May 2017
The Effect of MPOWER Scores on Cigarette Smoking Prevalence and Consumption »
Topics: Prevalence and consumption / Tobacco control policies and programs / Tobacco use
February 2017
A Significant Cigarette Tax Rate Increase in Oklahoma Would Produce a Large, Sustained Increase in State Tobacco Tax Revenues »
Topics: Cost-effectiveness / Economic consequences / Economic impact of tobacco control / Impact on demand / Tax and price / Tobacco taxes revenues / Tobacco use
February 2017
The Big Idea: Tobacco Taxation 101 »
Topics: Cost-effectiveness / Economic impact of tobacco control / Impact on demand / Impact on the poor / Jobs and productivity / Tax and price / Tax avoidance and evasion / Tax levels and structure / Tobacco taxes revenues
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Recent updates
August 16, 2017
“Lost Pleasure” Is a Lost Cause for Tobacco Regulation
Earlier this month the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule extending its authority to regulate all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and hookah. The final rule made no mention of the highly disputed “lost pleasure” concept that originally appeared in the FDA’s proposed rule—which Tobacconomics researchers were the first to argue against. Led by Tobacconomics director Dr. Frank Chaloupka, an expert team of health economists called attention to the flawed “lost pleasure” concept, which claims that the benefits for smokers who quit, such as improved health, would be greatly reduced by “loss of pleasure” people would experience after quitting. The FDA originally concluded that this “lost pleasure” merited a 70% decrease in the estimated benefits among those who quit. How did our researchers help to remove “lost pleasure” from the final rule? When the proposed rule for graphic warning labels on tobacco products, which included the lost pleasure concept, was first released in 2010, Dr. Chaloupka submitted comments to the Department of Health & Human … Read more »
March 8, 2017
UIC Selected As Core Partner of Bloomberg’s $360 Million Global Anti-Tobacco Initiative
A group of global tax policy experts led by Dr. Frank J. Chaloupka, director of the Health Policy Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Institute for Health Research and Policy, joins six other global health organizations as a core member of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. Chaloupka’s team will build the capacity of local think tanks to provide evidence-based policy support for effective tobacco tax policies in the highest tobacco-using low- and middle-income countries around the world. Dr. Chaloupka welcomes this new opportunity to partner with the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. “We are honored to join the other core partners,” he said, “and we look forward to working together to help priority countries increase their commitment to the most effective tobacco control policy there is—tobacco taxation.” The Bloomberg … Read more »