Cancer Research UK urges government to make big tobacco cough up

Earlier this month a report published by Cancer Research UK revealed that cuts to public health funding mean local Stop Smoking Services are being closed down.

In response, the charity is launching a new ‘Cough Up’ campaign, and wants the public to support a simple solution to the problem – making the tobacco industry pay for public health services and mass media quit campaigns to help save thousands of lives.

By charging the industry around 1p per cigarette sold in the UK, an extra £500m could be raised and spent directly on tobacco control.

Smoking continues to kill more than 100,000 people in the UK every year and the tobacco industry makes a profit of more than £4,000 for every UK death caused by tobacco.

Internationally, the tobacco industry makes around £30bn in profit.

Tobacco use costs England alone approximately £13.8bn each year; this includes the direct costs to the NHS as well as lost work days and productivity due to smoking related illness.