Publication details
Evaluating Tobacco Control Policies in the Czech Republic – Analysis of why the policies did not work as expected
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Since the 1990’s the Czech Republic implemented a complete range of policies to reduce tobacco consumption. The first law that enacted complex policies was passed in 1989, replaced by stricter regulation in 2006 and even stricter regulation in 2017. The range of adopted measures mixes preventive and educational policies, smoking bans, advertising restrictions and labelling products with warning signs. The excise tax on tobacco was introduced in 1993 and gradually increased at a rate higher than inflation from 0,46 CZK up to 2,63 CZK per piece today. The effects of tobacco control policies are underwhelming. According to OECD data, the overall yearly consumption of grams of tobacco per adult citizen (over 15 years of age) between the years 2000 and 2015 INCREASED from 2251 grams p.a. to 2373 grams p.a. The Czech Republic is the only OECD country with reported increase of tobacco consumption between the years 2000-2015. In the same timeframe, most OECD countries reduced tobacco consumption per capita by one quarter to one half of the levels of a year 2000. According to WHO data, the smoking prevalence of the Czech population among the adult population is 33.1 percent which is six percentage points above the European average (27,3) and ten percentage points above the global average (22,7). The point of this paper is to evaluate polices adopted by Czech Republic, assess the impact of individual policy steps on the consumption of tobacco and cigarettes and identify why some of the policies did not have a desired effect. |