Figures related to the sale and consumption of cigarettes have been misinterpreted, according to OFDT and Mildeca, who maintain that the trend remains downward over the long term.
Have tobacco sales really increased for the first time in 6 years, as a morning daily claims? These data, based on the latest “tobacco dashboard from the OFDT” (French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction), are interpreted very differently by health authorities.
For Mildeca (Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors), the scoreboard actually mentions a 7% increase in cigarette sales, and 12% for roll-your-own tobacco. From there to saying that consumption has also increased, there is only one step that the health authorities radically refuse to take.
One additional day of delivery
In fact, the figure does not reflect consumption, or even purchases by smokers, but the volume of sales from wholesalers to tobacconists. However, “more than half of this increase is explained by the fact that there was, in March, an additional day of supply”. One more working day of delivery would therefore partly explain this rebound. The information was also specified in the press release accompanying the Observatory’s monthly dashboards.
What about the other half? Has there been a significant increase in sales to tobacconists? The latest OFDT data should be published very soon, in order to confirm or refute the trend. In a press release, the Observatory explains that it is experiencing delays linked to a change in the process for transmitting sales data.
Decrease in the long run
But already, the OFDT wanted to put the dots on the i’s. “Cumulated evolution data, from January to June 2015, of sales of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco and pipe tobacco is available. These sales are up 1.14% compared to the same period in 2014 ”, we can read. A figure far removed, therefore, from the 7% increase in sales, and even more from the figures associated with consumption.
According to Mildeca, in May, there would even be a slight drop in sales of single cigarettes, of the order of 0.58% in terms of cumulative change over the same period. “In the long run, we remain on a downward trend”.
In addition, smoking cessation treatments saw their sales increase by a third in March 2015, going against the trend observed over the past two years. “Compared to March 2014, more smokers have had recourse to tobacco consultations (+ 5% of new patients) while calls to the Tobacco info service line have fallen by 3%”, we can read in the dashboard Of March.
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