Highlight session - Tobacco taxation: relieving the burden on health systems

Session co-organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Switzerland) and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) (Switzerland) Chaired by: Michal Stoklosa, World Health Organization (WHO) (Switzerland)

Presentations:

1. Profits drive the tobacco epidemic Rob Branston, University of Bath (United Kingdom) 2. Progress in tobacco tax policy performance from 2007 to 2020 Anne-Marie Perucic, World Health Organization (WHO) (Switzerland) 3. The Cigarette Tax Scorecard, an actionable assessment for policy makers Jeffrey Drope, University of Chicago Tobacconomics (United States) 4. Use of tobacco tax to improve public health and finance health services in Jamaica Sheryl Dennis Wright, Attorney-at-Law/Public Health Consultant (Jamaica) 5. Challenges to the use of tobacco taxes to finance Polish Tobacco Control Program Lukasz Balwicki, Medical University of Gdansk (Poland) 6. Building capacity for tobacco taxation advocacy Irina Kubinschi, SmokeFree Partnership (Belgium)

Description:

The session proposed by WHO and UICC will show how the tobacco industry is profitable, what kind of taxation strategies exist and have been implemented in different income settings, and how it could be used in a post-pandemic era to strengthen health systems and relieve the burden of cancer/NCD in countries (and for patients). Taxes imposed on unhealthy products, such as tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages, lead to reduced disease burdens, while the revenue from the tax can be used for health financing. This session presents the progress in health taxes implementation and provides evidence from countries that used the taxes as a tool to prevent cancers and raise revenue to improve access to health services across the cancer care continuum. We aim to present new areas of policy development, programme management, communications, and education. The session will provide key innovative tools that could be used by the audience to better understand the area, reinforce their knowledge, and in the longer-term, engage policy makers.