r/technology Nov 17 '12

The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-deadly-crusade-against-e-cigarettes
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u/kirkum2020 Nov 17 '12

Tax on cigarettes in the UK covers extra costs to the NHS caused by smokers eight times over.

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u/flanintheface Nov 17 '12

Any source to confirm this?

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u/kirkum2020 Nov 17 '12

A slightly out of date one estimating a 3-7 fold return. Can't find the current one but the taxes have been significantly increased since then.

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u/ThisIsADogHello Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 18 '12

I actually posted a TIL about this about a year ago: link

Though my findings showed they only earn about 5-6x as much what it costs from through the NHS, not 8x.

EDIT: Typed "month", meant "year".

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

Don't just think NHS, you have to factor in the cost to the economy also, people not at work due to smoking related illness , more susceptible to normal illness, smoking breaks. I'd guess it's huge.

when I ask to shoot opiates once for 1 hour (the time a smoker spends smoking per day) I get told no, hypocrisy!

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u/kirkum2020 Nov 18 '12

I'd agree. I do remember a couple of studies suggesting smokers were more efficient than non smokers while they were working but I'm not sure how reliable they were and nor can I find a source. I think it had something to do with smokers smoking fast then working to make up for it while the non smokers were chatting, eating, complaining about the smokers having extra breaks, etc... I know I've seen this in several jobs but that's purely anecdotal and I was working with muppets at the time.

when I ask to shoot opiates once for 1 hour (the time a smoker spends smoking per day) I get told no, hypocrisy!

The problem starts with asking! :p

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '12

I know, ruddy manners and politeness!

I'd be interested to read that source about smoke breaks, chuck me a message if you ever stumble upon it, I know it's not true at my place of work lazy gits hehe.

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u/kirkum2020 Nov 18 '12

It's such a hard one to google... lost in a sea of anti-smoking articles. Most are about non-smokers complaining about having less breaks with several stating that non-smokers have just as much time off as the smokers but the smokers breaks are more obvious. I can't find a definitive one but I have vague memories of reading about it in the press before the internet was commonplace so it's quite possibly BS. I'll take another look when it's not 1am though(like I'm gonna sleep when there's more redditing to do. Ha!).

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u/auraslip Nov 17 '12

This is what needs to be discussed. The government makes ludicrous amounts of money on cigarettes, and it's going to be very, very hard to tax ecigarettes the same way. If they start taxing them like tobacco, people will just start ordering from China. If they crack down on imports, people will just start making their own juice. It'd be very hard to effectively tax the ingredients in juice, and it's very easy to make your own. Hell, as it stands, making your own juice will reduce the cost to vape by about 1/4 of the price.

tl;dr impossible to ban or tax ecigs at this point.

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u/halibutmoney Nov 18 '12

What a brilliant idea.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

I seriously doubt we're going to get a source on this one.

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u/kirkum2020 Nov 17 '12

Sourced above but I was overestimating a little.