Minister of Health and Social Services wants to see price hike for cigarettes

Paula Risikko

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Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko (National Coalition Party) believes it is necessary to raise the price of a pack of cigarettes in order to discourage smoking.
      Risikko is in favour of including an increase in the excise duty levied on cigarettes in next year’s budget proposals.
     
"According to research studies, increasing the price of tobacco products is the most effective way of reducing smoking in the population, particularly among the young and the less well-educated", declared Risikko in the opening address to a "Smokeless Finland 2040" seminar in Helsinki arranged by the Finnish network of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
     
A working party from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is currently preparing a proposal for the increasing of duty on cigarettes and tobacco.
      A recent survey from the University of Tampere indicated that among young people of 12 to 18 years, the smoking habit is being taken up later.
      Nevertheless, roughly a third of 18-year-olds (30% of boys and 29% of girls) use tobacco on a daily basis in the form of cigarettes or Swedish snus moist powder tobacco.


Links:
  Ministry of Social Affairs and Health: Young people overall now smoke and drink less (10.1.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat