What does this have to do with Technology? Sounds more like a social engineering exercise to me.
\"The economic benefits of tobacco control rapidly outweigh tobacco tax revenues\"
So what? That is not in the slightest a reason to take peoples freedom away. If your argument is that people have to pay for a smokers healthcare, then exclude smokers from smoke related health services.
\"This is about why more should be done to help you do so\"
What kind of help are you referring to? Compulsion to quit?
\" it is time to put health before trade.\"
Who says so? You? This is a very collectivist way of thinking. If you succeed in preventing smoke related illnesses, they will be replaced by diseases related to other causes including old age. What is next? Ban junkfood?
Your tax argument doesn\'t hold either. You limit yourself to tax revenues on the sales of cigarettes but you fail to see the longer term benefit of smokers dying well before their retirement age.
I am a non smoker, when I am in a room with smokers I have trouble breathing and I need to get out. But I tell you something: I prefer to be forced to leave that room than having the likes of you legislate what people can and can not do.
A disgusting article that belongs in some communist manifesto but not on Gizmag.

Ok here\'s the thing! i hated being told all the problems by ex smokers. No one was going to tell me what to do with my own body.
I gave up smoking when I realised that despite all my best efforts at being myself, my own boss and being in control of my life. Some dude at Phillip Morris was pressing a little button on a machine and ordering me around several times a day. Then he was giving my money to his kids for their education and using it to pay for his health insurance and good food his boat and holiday home.
Hard to get off them but if you don\'t want to be told what to do for the rest of your life..... Give it up. By thwe way good luck with that. You will need it.

Damaging the health of those around you & polluting the air with your addiction is not a right. You do not have the right to kill me or otherwise cause harm. What you say sounds like a rather perverse interpretation of freedom. Our way of life is not always made better by all the rules & regulations we\'re subjected to but they\'re often there to help structure society to be something better. Prohibition is definitely an example of taking things too far but you could no doubt use that as a counter argument.
Communist manifesto lol...poor commies always get such a bad rap.

How about this? If you smoke, go off and die without demanding health care and make sure you have life insurance that covers smoking related death so your family at least doesn\'t completely miss out because you selfishly \"chose\" to be addicted to a drug. Have you had to sit and watch a loved one slowly die well before their time just because they chose to smoke? It really is sad. Think about it.
Having said that, I was expecting some new way to determine the cost of tobacco.
Paul, you don\'t want legislation that says people can\'t kill you on a whim? You don\'t want legislation that says people can\'t set fire to your property? You don\'t want legislation that says you can\'t drive anywhere you chose? Why is it strange that we\'d have legislation to stop people from harming others with their smoking choices? And how much \"choice\" does the average smoker really have? How many 30 year olds decide one day to take up smoking vs how many 13 year olds? Are you seriously saying that 13 year olds are able to make a well weighted decision regarding smoking? I would put it to the world that if we were somehow able to absolutely restrict people from smoking until the age of, say 30 or 40 and then they were able to make the choice given all the education and information they want that almost no one would ever start. The only reason smoking happens at all is because people get into it as a youngster when they think it is hip and cool.
Caring about yourself and other people is not communist. Not caring about individuals is what communism is about.

\"Tobacco-related illness saps the country of more than US$193 billion in health-care costs and lost productivity each year.\"
Yes but how much do healthy people cost in terms of health care costs? allot more then $193 billion. That is if you smoke and die relatively quickly your less of a cost then if you grow old and die slowly.

This article calculates your gains when investing in #prevention :
Your return is more than 57 TIMES what you put up over 15 years.
That is a LOT better than playing the stock markets !
As an MD specialized in occupational health prevention, I\'m in the right business :-)
PS. Curious what the return on investment in UNITED TOBACCO has been ? Probably way higher, together with the arms industry.
But I do not want to be associated with those fellows either, so if that makes me a commie, feel free to call me one. At least I\'ll be a rich one ;-)

Smoking is the #1 cause of preventable death, with more than 400,000 people in the U.S. every year dying of illnesses directly related to tobacco use and even secondhand smoke.\"
Right and these people would never have died if they didn\'t smoke? they wouldn\'t have gotten sick and needed any medical care?
I think that when looking at the \"Big Picture\" numbers can be spun any way that is desired by the corporation or government agency presenting them. I would be curious if there are any truly independent third party studies that support this.
My experience in living with a non smoker advocate is that they are almost evangelical in their quest to stop people from smoking. Communist Yes that is a fair description in so far as they subscribe to the theory that the end justifies the means.
With the war on smoking being close to won they are now moving on to the environment and are now probably ready to start hitting fast food. Lots of things to crusade for and plenty of issues that require government money spent for the greater good.
Beware fat men driving V8\'s - you are the next target.

Great article. I finally gave up two years ago after 35 years of twenty a day, passive smoking before that and smoking in the womb before that. Best thing I ever did. These figures expose the lie that there is a net benefit through taxation to the economy.

Smoking affects technology. For those that say \"it\'s my body\", it\'s my taxes partly paying for your health care. When you opt out of the social system supporting medicare and pay ALL your costs and the costs of those made ill by your 2nd hand smoke then you do as you want. Until then I have a right to be upset you are choosing to poison yourself and those around you while expecting others to pick up the tab.

@Paul van Dinther
> Ban junkfood?
This is actually a very good idea! I do not mean fastfood but especially junkfood - food with bad quality and wrong ingredients ratio. This can be done on producer side.
Another thing is too big portions. That affects also healtcare. Something can be done also here. This might be sound absurd but think about it - a excess food tax. You can think about it as kind of luxurytax. You want to have that XXXXXXL burger? You pay proportional tax dependent on excess calories.
And please do not attac my person - these are just ideas to consider.