Tobacco Industry Profits Despite Smaller Number of Youth Smokers
Despite a drop in the U.S. youth smoking rate, tobacco companies' revenue from youth smokers increased, according to a report in the April issue of Tobacco Control. Dr. Cheryl Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation®, was the lead author of the report, which said that in 1997, U.S. youth – defined as students in grades 8 through 12 - smoked 890 million packs of cigarettes, which generated $737 million in revenue for the tobacco industry. By 2002, youth cigarette consumption dropped to 541 million packs of cigarettes, but despite this decline in smoking, revenue for Big Tobacco jumped to $1.2 billion as a result of increases in the (wholesale) price of cigarettes.
In 2002, revenue from youth smokers studied in this Tobacco Control report was divided among the companies, with 58 percent going to Philip Morris, 18 percent to Lorillard and 12 percent to RJ Reynolds. The report also calculates that throughout their lifetimes, the U.S. high school senior class of 1997 will smoke an estimated 12.4 billion packs of cigarettes and earn the tobacco industry $27.3 billion in revenue.
Dr. Healton acknowledged that youth are sensitive to price, and that increased cigarette costs help to reduce youth smoking. However, she said price increases are not enough to significantly reduce incidences of youth smoking. Programs such as the foundation's national youth smoking prevention campaign truth® and similar state and local efforts must provide youth with information on smoking and tobacco industry marketing, so that they can make informed decisions.
