Bob Herbert :
© The New York Times, July 24, 2001
A Lesson from Economics 101 at Big Tobacco University
NEW YORK Let's hear it for the tobacco industry! The latest
happy news from the jovial operators of this express service to the
Pearly Gates comes from the Czech Republic. Philip Morris
officials have been passing around an economic analysis that came
up with the delightful finding that the early death of smokers is
good for the Czech economy.
Yes, indeed. We should all kick back, light up and savor this
joyous data.
Philip Morris commissioned the analysis, which was done by the
consulting firm Arthur D. Little International. In compiling the many
"positive" economic effects of smoking, the report unabashedly
cited the "health care cost savings due to early mortality."
The report was very clear about this. By bumping off a portion of
the population, Big Tobacco was saving the Czech government
millions. As The Wall Street Journal wrote:
"The premature demise of smokers saved the Czech government
between 943 million koruna and 1.19 billion koruna ($23.8 million
to $30.1 million) on health care, pensions and housing for the
elderly in 1999, according to the report."
Philip Morris commissioned the study because it felt it had to
respond to complaints from Czech officials about the huge costs of
caring for people with tobacco-related diseases. The authors of
the report rose admirably to that challenge. There are two
problems with the Philip Morris report. The first is the brazen and
profoundly unethical disregard of the value of human life itself. The
second is the fact that the economic benefits that are supposed to
accrue from the early death of smokers are as ephemeral as
smoke itself.
"The basic problem," said Derek Yach, executive director of the
Tobacco Free Initiative of the World Health Organization, "is that
if you've got countries - and many in Eastern Europe fall into this
category - where access to health care is still suboptimal, you'll be
able to show that alleged financial benefits outweigh costs because
costs are nowhere near where they should be in terms of treating
adequately the full impact of tobacco-related diseases."
The economic "benefits" from the early death of tobacco smokers
vanish whenever there is adequate treatment available for the
cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease and many
other terrible afflictions associated with smoking.
It appears that this latest study is backfiring on the tobacco
industry. People are repelled by it. And anti-smoking advocates
have seized upon it as more evidence of the need for international
controls on the marketing of tobacco products.
Kathryn Mulvey, who heads Infact, a watchdog group, said,
"Philip Morris' cynical disregard for the lives of Czech citizens,
using an economic argument rejected in the U.S., illustrates the
need for global controls."
"If you take the argument to the extreme," said Mr. Yach, "then
you could say there's no economic benefit to investing in the health
care of anyone over the age of 55, so let them die. It doesn't
matter what the cause of death is."