The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Health expert suggests ‘license to smoke’

By Yoon Min-sik

Published : Nov. 15, 2012 - 18:29

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Health officials all around the world have introduced a variety of policies to reduce smoking rates: warning labels and graphic, almost grotesque images on cigarette packs, campaigns, and many countries including South Korea have banned or are pushing to ban smoking in public places.

One researcher from Australia, however, has gone so far as to say people should carry a license if they want to buy cigarettes.

Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney, said it is possible to curb smoking by introducing a license system which limits the amount of cigarettes one can buy.

In an article published in an online medical journal PLOS Medicine on Tuesday, he suggested a “smart card license” encoded with a maximum purchase limit. Three grades of license will be available: maximum 70 cigarettes per week, 140 per week and 350 per week.

The fee to obtain the license would “neither be trivial nor astronomical” but enough to make smokers think twice about buying cigarettes, according to Chapman’s theory. He said the new system will prompt people living in poverty to quit or reduce smoking, since additional cost of the license will burden them.

He also proposed a incentive for quitting, where a smoker would get back the license fee if he or she decided to surrender license permanently.

In general, Chapman expressed hopes that the concept of acquiring a license will hinder people from smoking.

“The requirement for a license would send a powerful, symbolic message to all smokers and potential smokers that tobacco was no ordinary commodity, akin to grocery items, confectionary, or any product on unrestricted sale,” he wrote.

Chapman’s proposal was from rebutted by another health expert, Jeff Collins, global health policy professor from the University of Edinburgh.

In an article he wrote in the same journal, Collins said such licensing is infeasible as such an authoritarian method will surely be met with broad opposition.

He added that smokers’ license will worsen the stigma against smokers.

An anti-smoking campaign should focus more on the tobacco industry, rather than individual smokers, he argued.

“There is also an important need for more creative thinking in how we regulate the industry, which should center on changing a system of manufacture and promotion of such harmful products centered on the corporation, an institution that is staggeringly ill-suited to such roles when viewed from a public health perspective,” Collins wrote.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)


<관련 한글 기사>

'흡연 면허 발급' 논란!

호주의 보건 전문가가 흡연을 줄이기 위해 면허를 발급해야 한다고 주장해 논란이 일고 있다.

시드니 대학 공중위생학 교수 사이먼 채프먼은 온라인 의학 저널 플로스 메디슨에 올린 글을 통해 흡연자가 일정량의 담배만 살수 있도록 면허 카드를 발급해야 한다고 주장했다.

그가 제안한 방식에 따르면 흡연자는 일정량의 요금을 내고 면허를 발급받는데, 면허 등급에 따라 살 수 있는 담배의 양이 달라진다. 등급에 따른 담배 구입량은 세 종류로 각각 일주일에 최대 350개비, 140개비, 70개비이다.

채프먼은 담배 면허를 따는데 드는 노력과 금액이 흡연자들이 담배를 줄이거나 끊는데 도움을 줄 것이라고 추측했다. 그는 면허를 따는데 드는 비용이 “천문학적이지도 너무 적지도” 않으며 흡연자가 담배 구매를 망설이게 만들 정도의 비용이 될 것이라고 설명했다.

또한 그는 ‘금연 인센티브’ 제도를 제안했는데, 이는 만약 흡연자가 담배를 끊을 경우, 흡연하면서 냈던 면허비용을 전액 돌려받을 수 있게 하는 제도이다.

“면허를 따야 된다는 것 자체가 흡연자들과 잠재적인 흡연자들에게 ‘담배는 식료품 같은 평범한 상품이 아니다’라는 강력한 상징적인 메시지를 주게 된다”라고 채프먼은 말했다.

그러나 또 다른 보건전문가인 스코틀랜드 에딘버러 대학 교수 제프 콜린스는 면허 발급 같은 권위적인 방식은 격렬한 반발에 부딪힐 것이 분명하기 때문에 도입이 불가능하다고 주장했다.

또한 이런 방식을 통해 흡연자들에게 부정적인 인식이 확산될 것이라고 우려했다.

그는 흡연을 줄이기 위해서는 개인이 아니라 담배 산업 자체에 더 초점을 맞춰야 한다고 주장했다.

This photo is not directly related to the article.(123rf) This photo is not directly related to the article.(123rf)