Lung Association Believes Most People Support Higher Tobacco Taxes

The New Brunswick Lung Association releasing the results of a survey which indicates 69 per cent of people in the province support spending more money to get people to quit smoking and 59 per cent support increasing tobacco taxes to come up with the funding needed. 

Lung Association President and CEO Barb MacKinnon tells CHSJ even though tobacco taxes bring in 157 million dollars a year, illnesses caused by smoking take quite a chunk out of the healthcare budget to the tune of 111 million dollars a year in direct costs and 429 million dollars in social costs which include lost workdays. 

She also points to research that shows for every dollar spent on smoking cessation, three dollars are save in healthcare costs.
 
The smoking rate in the province at 18.8 per cent is over 2 per cent higher than the national average.
 
According to the Lung Association, it usually takes from 5 to 7 attempts before someone can give up smoking.