Empty pack survey to estimate Illicit Tobacco Trade in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Pizarro, María Elisabet; Giacobone, Gabriel; Shammah, Cinthia; Stokłosa, Michał

doi:10.1007/s12117-021-09417-y

Cited by 1 publication

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“…In 2018, researchers collected 4 906 discarded packages in a prescribed and standardized sample of streets across 50% of the census tracts (180 total) in the city of Buenos Aires, the country's capital and largest population center (12). The pack inspection revealed that the illicit market was 4%, which compared to contemporaneous tobacco industry estimates ranging from 14% to 22% (13).…”

Section: Findings From Recent Studies Estimating Illicit Trade Argentinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent evidence on the illicit cigarette trade in Latin America

Drope¹,

Rodríguez-Iglesias²,

Stokłosa

et al. 2022

Revista Panamericana De Salud Pública

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The tobacco industry continues to present the illicit trade of tobacco products as a reason to slow, stop, or reverse tobacco control efforts in Latin America, including increasing tobacco excise taxes. In most cases, industry estimates of illicit trade, usually non-transparent and flawed, dwarf those of independent, rigorous research. Often, independent studies find that the levels of illicit trade are mostly non-consequential or easily manageable (<12%). Almost always, industry findings grossly overestimate the illicit market. Fortunately, a burgeoning empirical literature in the region—including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay—is illuminating the genuine levels and nature of this trade, typically employing gap analysis that compares tax-paid sales to consumption and/or pack inspection studies using packs shown by smokers in surveys or discarded in the streets or garbage. Additional research in countries including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay examines supply chains to help identify the illicit sources. This research is already helping governments to address any real problems with illicit trade and to reassure stakeholders that tobacco control efforts should be strengthened, not diminished.

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Section: Findings From Recent Studies Estimating Illicit Trade Argentinamentioning

confidence: 99%