The cost of smoking in England: data from the Smoking Toolkit Study Robert West Last updated: 20 September 2009

Methods Smoking Toolkit Study: a series of national household surveys of representative samples of approximately 1700 adults aged 16+ in England with a special focus on the ~500 who have smoked within the past year Sample weighted to match census on demographics Computer-assisted interviews Focus on smoking, smoking reduction and smoking cessation activities

What smokers pay for their cigarettes Questions asked from October 2007 to June 2009 N=7721 Mean spend: £20.01 pw No trend over time Lower social grades pay less per cigarette largely because of use of Roll-Your-Own but have higher cigarette consumption and spend less per week on smoking overall Regression analysis Dependent variable: daily cost of smoking Predictors: manufactured cpd, RYO cpd Multiple R: 0.92 The average cost of 20 cigarettes: manufactured £4.80 RYO £1.90

Buying cheap cigarettes Sample: 1180 smokers: March to May 08 Measure: Illicit source: person in pub, street, trusted local source, friend Abroad: brought back from overseas Lower social grades more likely to buy from illicit source, higher social grades more likely to bring back from abroad Figures for illicit purchase are likely to under-estimate because of sampling bias towards high social responsibility Questions supplied and study funded and implemented by ASH

Cost of smuggled cigarettes Mean cost per cigarette in those who smoke no illicit cigs: 27p Mean cost per cigarette in those who smoke at least some illicit cigs: 20p But partly accounted for by higher use of RYO in smokers of smuggled cigs Adjusting for percentage of cigs that are RYO difference in cost per 20 cigs in those who smoke only licit and those who smoke at least some illicit cigs: 52p

Conclusions Licit roll-your-own cigarettes are half the cost of manufactured cigarettes Smokers from lower social grades smoke more illicit cigarettes and so pay less to smoke than higher social grade smokers despite smoking more cigarettes The cost of smoking is further reduced by an average of 52p per 20 in those who smoke at least some smuggled cigarettes Raising duty on roll-your-own tobacco and making further efforts to control smuggling are probably the most important tobacco control measures that the government can adopt, particularly with a view to reducing health inequalities