Irish study to look at tax effects on smoking

The Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society (RIFTFS) has just been awarded a €3m euro research contract on a project entitled, Pricing Policies and control of Tobacco in Europe.(PPACTE) The first meetings designed to shape the project will be held at the Digital Depot, Dublin on February 26 and 27.
PPACTE “Pricing Policies and control of Tobacco in Europe“ is a collaborative 3 year project being funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7).

PPACTE will look at the impact of price and taxes on the effect of fiscal policy and tobacco control in Europe and offer recommendations to Member States (MS) and to the European Commission. PPACTE will provide an understanding of how to use pricing policies for the effective and equitable control of tobacco in Europe, which is imperative for addressing the disease burden caused by tobacco use. However, it is complicated by the diversity between MS in terms of their stage in the tobacco epidemic and their level of Tobacco Control development as well as their current economic, cultural, and political environment.
Professor Luke Clancy, Director of RIFTFS said today, “The EU’s FP7 structure has allowed RIFTFS to bring together a multidisciplinary team with some of the best health economists, epidemiologists, public health specialists and tobacco control policy experts under its leadership – to work on this project. The partners are: RIFTFS (Coordinator), Ireland, IARC France, THL Finland, IRFMN Italy, IUATLD France, UoB UK, ICO Spain and HBSA USA”.
This project will provide the most comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of tobacco pricing policy to date, which will be available and applicable to each MS in the EU.
The consortium involved in this project leverages the best people from around the world in one team to address a hugely important topic. An additional benefit to Ireland is that the project will increase funding for high level jobs here in Tobacco control and thus build research capacity in this important area.
Coordinator: Research Institute for Tobacco Free Society (RIFTFS)
The Digital Depot, Thomas Street, Dublin 8.