Israel's parliament, the Knesset, marked no-smoking day today. Many ministers and rank and file MKs will turn up to demonstrate support for the campaign against smoking, but the support needs to be more concrete than declarations alone. The information that the MKs and ministers will receive will include the damage to the economy as a result of failure to help those addicted to cigarettes: The State of Israel collects some NIS 3 billion in tax annually from taxation of cigarettes (before the latest price rise), but it spends some NIS 4 billion annually on treating people injured by smoking. The state could prevent this loss, and even switch to a surplus, if it had the sense to assist people to give up smoking rather than maintaining the number of smokers, which currently amounts to a quarter of the adult population.
Many smokers would like to stop smoking. They are aware of the damage it causes to their health and quality of life, but they are afraid of the process of becoming weaned off cigarettes, which almost always involves considerable physiological and psychological stress. The addiction is beyond the control of most cigarette addicts, and they need help. The state has a social, economic, and medical interest of the highest order in helping them, a move that holds out great potential for economic gains.
A person who stops smoking restores to his or employer (and to the economy) an average of one whole working hour daily that was previously wasted on cigarette breaks. This is in addition to sick leave that will be saved that, were it not for giving up cigarettes, a person would take because of ill health directly or indirectly connected to smoking. The total number of working hours wasted in the economy because of smoking breaks and more frequent sickness is 64,440, worth an average of some NIS 2.8 billion a year. Helping employees stop smoking in the workplace will represent a huge gain to the employers, the economy, and the country. Of course one cannot ignore the gain to the smoker who overcomes their addiction, which claims about 10,000 deaths a year from smoking.
A person who quits smoking reduces the burden he places on health system from hospitalization, drugs, and treatments for smoking-related injury. About 14% of the total number of beds in Israel's hospitals go each year to patients suffering from complaints as a result of smoking, and anyone who stops smoking contributes to freeing up these beds and the costs associated with them for the benefit of other patients. The medical costs of treating smokers amounts to about 6% of the health system's total expenditure. If we add this to the sum that ex-smokers return to the economy through working hours, it emerges that not only does the state not lose the revenue from taxation of smoking, it actually gains a great deal of money, and contribute to a healthier environment and a higher quality of life for its citizens.
The state's gain from investing in preventing smoking does not end here. The large amounts of money that smokers invest in cigarettes will be diverted to buying consumer goods and entertainment, from which the state derives tax revenue. The money wasted on cigarettes will not disappear from the market, but will be returned to it via other channels.
Research shows that the best way of giving up smoking, with the highest chance of success in the long run, is a combination of drug treatment and a support group. A proven prescription drug, such as Champix, helps in dealing with the physiological addiction to cigarettes, while interrupting the connection between nicotine and a feeling of enjoyment. Support groups in the workplace, at health funds, and on the Internet, help the former smoker with daily habits associated with smoking that have developed over the years. The cost of weaning someone off smoking is about NIS 1,200 (including workshops and subsidies for Champix provided by most of the health funds). This cost is spread over three months, so that, for the state, the employers, and the economy as a whole, the cost is minimal and for a limited period, and it pays itself back in high personal, social, and economic gains over a long period of time.
The writer is country manager of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd. Pfizer develops and distributes Champix, a prescription smoking cessation drug.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 3, 2009