After a $1 a pack rise in cigarette tax in Iowa and cigarette tax tripling in Tennessee sales have said to have fallen by 30%!  Cigarette smoking has become more expensive than ever, but the question is does this mean more people are actually quitting. We all know many smokers want to stop smoking, but very little of them smokers do actually succeed in quitting.

Cigarette packs sold throughout stores and shop in Iowa in 2006 totaled to nearly 250 million packs. It is estimated that cigarette packs sold in Iowa will fall to an approximation of as little as 190 million for 2007. So in the space of a year, smokers have cut down on 60million packs of cigarettes? I don’t think so somehow. If you take the sales from manufacturers of cigarettes the statistics are different, sales haven’t dropped as dramatically as this projection says. Smokers are still buying cigarettes one way or another; there are large numbers of cigarette packs purchased online, and also there are still many cases of cigarette smuggling unaccounted for.

In my view, smokers are being pushed into purchasing cigarettes from illegitimate sources. It is logical that if a smoker has access to cheaper cigarettes, why they should pay the extra taxes then. At the end of the day, the smoking life of a smoker is becoming increasingly more difficult. For those smokers who have been mislead and lured into smoking in the first place you have to sympathize really.

Going back to the initial question of if are smokers actually quitting due to the increase in cigarette costs, well, its hard to tell, but cigarette stores around the U.S do suggest that some smokers may have quit. Stores throughout Iowa reported sales to be lower, but revenues from cigarette sales are higher?! What is happening is outlets are selling fewer cigarette packs and cartons at higher prices. So maybe smokers have actually cut down, or they are probably just purchasing cigarettes from another source.

The European Commissions are expected to propose by next year the implementation of fire safe cigarettes to be sold across Europe. This also means that normal cigarettes will be taken completely off the market. The main reason behind this decision is to prevent fires igniting around Europe, a huge percentage of the total fires caused around homes in the EU are sadly due to the misplacement of cigarettes.

A pack of fire safe cigarettes should cost near enough the same as what they do now, don’t be surprised to see a slight rise in price  although the effects of which this law can have on many brands is not foreseen. Many smaller brands of cigarettes will struggle with the initial outlay and cost to research and produce these fire safe cigarettes. It could result in the closure of quite a few cigarette brands who cannot afford the change in production. Brands like Marlboro, Camel, Winston, Salem, Kool, Seneca, and Doral should be all fine where they have turnovers and profit margins large enough. 

The fire safe cigarette has small gaps in the cigarette paper, this causes a lighten cigarette to extinguish by lessening the circulation within the cigarette if not smoked or puffed after a short period of time. There are a few other elements that have changed to help the new form cigarette go out faster than a cigarette you will find today. The question is; is this feature on the supposed fire safe cigarettes actually going to put out the cigarette quick enough to cut down on the amount of house fires around the globe, never mind Europe alone, we will have to just wait and see…