BURDEN OF TOBACCO

Is tobacco a problem to Sri Lanka?

Majority of you will say “Yes” at once…yes it is a problem in many aspects, mainly in health, economic, socially and development context. It is a problem at individual, community and nation level.

 

Health burden of tobacco

Global statistics:

“Globally, Tobacco is responsible for more than 15% of deaths among men and 7% of deaths among women.” Source: The Tobacco Atlas, 4th Edition"

Annually more than 6 million people around the world are estimated to die due to tobacco related illness, from direct use of the product. An additional 600,000 are estimated to die from illness due to second hand smoking.

 

Sri Lanka:

Estimated annual mortality from tobacco-related illness is about 20, 000 deaths that is approximately 57 people die per day due to tobacco use. Cigarette is the only product, which kills one out of two consumers.
Non-Communicable Diseases [NCDs] have become the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Sri Lanka and tobacco use is a recognized causal factor in the genesis of NCDs.

Source: Brief Profile on Tobacco Control in Sri Lanka, Ministry of Health -2009

 

Economic, social and development burden of tobacco

Do you know that Sri Lankans spend approximately Rs. 208 million on cigarettes per day (as per annual report of CTC in 2011 the income was Rs. 76,150,556,000/-). This is the amount of money, which could have been utilized for individual and community development. Did you know that the revenue of CTC is flowed to foreign countries, as the British American Tobacco-BAT owns more.

 

Who’s the biggest killer?

than 92% of the shares of CTC.

Beedi can be identified as the cheapest smoking tobacco products in Sri Lanka average price is Rs. 2/- (Min2-Max3.5). The cheapest cigarettes type is Rs. 10/- (Min10-Max34). Although beedi is the cheapest form of tobacco smoking 97% of the total tobacco smokers are smoking cigarettes in Sri Lanka. In the world context, 96% of the tobacco smokers are cigarette smokers.

 

 

 

 

 

"Majority of the beedi consumers are consuming cigarettes but most cigarettes users are not consuming beedi."

 

Beedi manufacturing and sales can be seen as a small scale mainly home-based business with no promotion or advertising cost at all. In Sri Lanka, cigarettes production and sale is a monopoly of Ceylon Tobacco Company which is owned by British American Tobacco-BAT. BAT owns more than 92% of the shares of CTC. Tobacco Company is engaged in subtle promotions due to complete ban in direct and indirect promotions, sponsorships and advertising as per the NATA (National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol) Act 27 of 2006.
Beedi consumption is visible among low-income groups in the country and mostly they are elders above 40 years (74%). Most beedi consumers are having minimal educational background or no education at all. They are mainly engaged in daily wage labor jobs. Cigarettes smokers are spread across different age groups (15-24 youth- 27.4%, 25-39 middle age- 34.2% and above 40 43.3%), economic and education conditions.
Beedi smokers are declining and the producers and sellers claim that the production and sales decreasing. Most common reasons for beedi usage were “support for late night jobs”, “to get rid of the tiredness”, “to pass time”, etc which were linked to their occupations. This implies that the beedi users are trapped in the common myths attached to tobacco smoking. However majority of the cigarette smokers claim that they smoke without any obvious reason.

Graph 1: Tobacco production in world

Source: Tobacco Atlas 4th edition, American Cancer Society

96%
Cigarettes
4%
Other tobacco including beedi

Graph 2: Type of Tobacco product smoked by Current users

Source: Spot Survey – 2017, ADIC

Cigarette93.3%
Beedi5.5%
Cigar0.8%
Other0.4%