El CNPT has explained in a statement that its organizations expressed during the celebration of its Congress last week a «deep concern» about the slowness in adopting measures to reduce the prevalence of tobacco and nicotine consumption and to curb access to young people.
For the Committee, the Government’s decision to withdraw neutral packaging from the Royal Decree Project regulating certain aspects of tobacco products and derivatives sent to the European Commission last January is «one of the main reasons for concern».
In this regard, it has highlighted the «significant» impact on public health that this measure would have, as several studies suggest that up to 85,000 people could quit smoking in Spain in just one year if implemented. In Australia, the first country in the world to fully implement neutral packaging in December 2012, smoking decreased by 15 percent in two years. Since then, a total of 22 countries have introduced it.
LOWER PRICES THAN FRANCE OR PORTUGAL
In addition, the CNPT has denounced that Spain still has tobacco prices «much lower» than neighboring countries like France or Portugal, which encourages young people and adolescents to access tobacco consumption and weakens prevention policies.
«We have lost more than a decade in tobacco taxation, without reviewing taxes or adapting them to new products. It is urgent to apply appropriate taxation that also taxes electronic devices and new formats with which the tobacco industry continues to attract new addicts among minors whose health we should protect,» the Committee stated.
Furthermore, it has assured that this is one of the «most effective» measures to reduce consumption, especially among young people. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), a 10 percent increase in tobacco prices reduces consumption by approximately four percent.
At this point, the CNPT has referred to the case of the United Kingdom, a country where the percentage of adult population smoking decreased from almost a third to less than 12 percent between 1988 and 2023; a period in which the average price of a pack of 20 cigarettes increased from 1.48 to 14.25 pounds, almost multiplying by ten.
Faced with this data, the CNPT has called on the Government to act «firmly», increase the price of tobacco, and extend that taxation to loose tobacco, heated tobacco, and all nicotine consumption products.
The Committee has recalled that smoking remains the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in Spain, and that non-smoking population remains unprotected due to the «insufficiency» of prevention and control measures. «We cannot allow the economic interests of a few to prevent effectively protecting the health of the entire population. Public health cannot continue to wait,» it concluded.