Korea - South: Government Spends Little on Anti-smoking Programs

Source from:  GlobalPost  06/18/2013

The government only spends about 1 percent of its fund to promote public health of smokers on anti-smoking programs, ministry officials said Monday.

The health promotion fund receives 90 percent of its funding from a 354 won tax on each pack of cigarettes, which costs around 2,500 won (US$2.20), according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Still, the government has not used this money for smokers' health, opting instead to spend large amounts of the fund on unrelated issues.

In 2006, the health promotion fund spending came to 1.9 trillion won, though the government used just 1.7 percent, or 31.5 billion won, for anti-smoking programs, according to the ministry.

The ratio dipped to 1.1 percent in 2012 when the government spent 22.8 billion won to help smokers break the habit and promote their health, according to the ministry.

The People's Health Institute, a private health institute, has called on the government to place its priority on reducing smoking and its side effects, noting large amounts of the health promotion fund have been used for unspecified individuals instead of smokers.

The prevalence of smoking among men in South Korea is almost as high as 50 percent, placing the Asian country as having one of the highest smoking rates for males among the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, along with Turkey and Greece, according to a study posted on the website of the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences. Enditem