Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

Pack of cigarettes to cost more than €5

Smokers will not only pay for their habit with their health in 2012 – prices are increasing too, with a pack of 19 cigarettes topping €5 for the first time.

Published: 30 December 2011 09:04 CET
Pack of cigarettes to cost more than €5
Time to quit? Photo: DPA

New year resolutions to give up smoking could be strengthened on January 1 when prices rise due to a increase in the tobacco tax of between four and eight cents per pack. And cigarette makers are passing the increased costs directly onto their customers.

Reemtsa/Imperial Tobacco said it would also be rounding the price up on its brands which include West, JPS, Gauloises, Davidoff and Peter Stuyvesant. Industry insiders say other manufacturers will also increase their prices, bringing the cost of a pack of 19 top brand cigarettes over the €5 mark.

British American Tobacco, which makes Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes, has said it would not be increasing its prices at the start of the year. The picture for rolling and pipe tobacco is mixed, with some firms planning to hike prices and others not.

The tobacco tax is due to increase by between four and eight cents a year until 2015.

Cigarette advertising is also likely to be further restricted in 2012, with a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection saying this week that plans were being drawn up to remove it from cinemas and from posters. The distribution of free cigarettes as part of marketing campaigns will also be banned. Tobacco advertising is already banned from printed media and the internet in Germany.

DPA/DAPD/The Local/hc

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

SHOW COMMENTS