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 Even in states where tobacco has played an important role in the
economy - including North Carolina, Kentucky and Missouri -chambers
have endorsed cigarette tax hikes, raising the smoking age and other
efforts to curb tobacco habits.
The shift has accelerated since 2016, driven by a growing awareness
that smoking drives up healthcare costs for employers, business
groups said.
Smoking restrictions often are part of broader wellness initiatives,
such as promoting exercise and nutrition, aimed at improving health
- and business.
"Smoking isn't just killing us, it's bankrupting us," said Ashli
Watts, a spokeswoman with the Chamber of Commerce for Kentucky,
where one in four adults uses tobacco, the lung cancer rate is the
nation's highest and related healthcare and lost productivity costs
nearly $5 billion a year.
"Companies do look at the health of a workforce," Watts said. An
unhealthy workforce "is a deterrent."
In Kansas City, Missouri, the chamber joined the local Blue Cross
and Blue Shield insurer in 2015 in launching a smoking cessation
effort.
They hoped to persuade five communities to raise the legal tobacco
age to 21 by 2018. Within a month, two of the largest cities in the
area had signed on, and now more than 20 communities with 1.4
million people have raised the age.
Pam Whiting, a spokeswoman for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of
Commerce with members in Kansas and Missouri, said the group was
"happily stunned" by the results.
"It is a real concern for our business members, for their employees
and their bottom line," she said.
In Indiana, where smoking costs an estimated $7 billion in
healthcare and lost productivity, the state chamber is pushing for a
$1-a-pack increase in the state cigarette tax, to raise the smoking
age to 21 and for more spending on cessation.
"It's not typical for a chamber to advocate for a tax increase,"
said Kevin Brinegar, president and chief executive of the Indiana
chamber. But, he added, the cost of smoking "gives us a black eye."
TOBACCO FIGHTS BACK
Cigarette makers are spending tens of millions to fight the efforts,
according to a Reuters review of campaign spending data and
interviews, healthcare groups and the companies.
Brittany Adams, a spokeswoman for Camel cigarette maker Reynolds
American Inc, said the local chambers' efforts go against their core
mission and could hurt businesses outside the tobacco industry.
"Chambers of commerce are supposed to protect the interests of
businesses in their communities, and supporting these kinds of bills
may negatively impact local wholesalers and retailers," Adams said.
Last fall, the industry spent almost $100 million to fight cigarette
tax ballot measures in several states. More than $70 million of that
was spent in California, where voters approved Proposition 56,
raising state taxes by $2 to $2.87 per pack.
Business groups in San Francisco and Los Angeles supported the
measure. Tax increases failed in Colorado and North Dakota.
Although adult smoking rates in California are the second lowest in
the country, its large population makes it the single biggest U.S.
market with 8.5 percent of cigarette sales.
Marlboro cigarette maker Altria estimated tax hikes enacted in
Pennsylvania and California would hurt industry sales volumes by
about 1 percent this year.
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Wall Street analysts say the bigger risk is that more states follow
suit.
At least 215 states and municipalities - including Hawaii and
California, as well as New York City, Chicago and Boston – have
raised the age to 21, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids.
A spokesman said Altria wants to see the battle return to Congress,
where it believes it has gotten a better hearing. With the Tobacco
Control Act of 2009, Congress set a national minimum smoking age of
18.
In 2015, an Institute of Medicine study concluded that raising the
national minimum to 21 would prevent about 223,000 premature deaths
among people born between 2000 and 2019.
A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill to raise the age
nationally to 21, but it never got a vote.
"This is a complex issue, and Congress has established a thoughtful
process to better understand it," Altria spokesman David Sutton
said.
Tobacco products already "are very heavily taxed," Sutton said. He
also said sales taxes were a particular burden on the poor and
created incentives "for criminals to engage in contrabrand."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not taken a position on the bill in
Congress to raise the smoking age, and, as a rule, it leaves local
issues to local chambers, said chamber representative Blair Latoff
Holmes.
In Kentucky, a recent survey found more than 90 percent of the
state's chamber members support bans on smoking in the workplace.
But the chamber decided against pushing for a statewide ban because
it believes the politics are stacked against it.
The industry has spent more than $3.7 million the last five years
lobbying Kentucky state legislators, records show. And, in November,
Republicans won control of the legislature with the support of many
constituents who consider smoking a personal prerogative.
For now, the Kentucky chamber is putting its clout behind a doctor-sponsered
bill that would ban tobacco products from schools. Currently, less
than 40 percent of Kentucky school districts ban tobacco.
"Generation after generation of people in Kentucky have smoked,"
said Watts, the chamber spokeswoman. "There are people who don't
know anyone who has ever quit."
For graphic on rising taxes on tobacco products, click: http://bit.ly/2m0MMpr
(Reporting By Jilian Mincer; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Lisa
Girion)
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