A man is smoking an e-cigarette. Hankyoreh material photo
The government plans to raise the price of cigarettes to the average value of the OECD member countries within the next 10 years. In addition, to reduce alcohol consumption, it is reviewing measures to impose a health promotion charge on alcohol. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 27th the ‘5th Comprehensive National Health Promotion Plan’ (2021-2030), including measures to strengthen regulations on alcohol and tobacco. The goal is to increase the health life of 70.4 years old in 2018 to 73.3 years old by 2030 by implementing various policies to promote the health of the people and prevent diseases, and to alleviate other gaps in income and regions. Healthy life is the life expectancy minus the prevalence period due to illness or injury. As of 2018, the national average life expectancy is 82.7 years old, which is about 12 years shorter than this. Specifically, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has set a goal to reduce the smoking rate of adult men and women from 36.7% and 7.5% in 2018 to 25.0% and 4.05% in 2030. To this end, it will raise cigarette prices to the average of the OECD member countries ($7.36, about 8130 won) within 10 years. Currently, the price of cigarettes in Korea is about 4 dollars. Isran, head of health policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, “Currently, we have not specifically decided on when and how much (tobacco prices) to be raised.” Various regulations on e-cigarettes are also strengthened. According to the related laws, the definition of cigarettes includes’cigarettes and electronic cigarette devices that use synthetic nicotine as a raw material in whole or in part’, and the regulations applied to cigarette cigarettes are also applied to e-cigarettes. Standard cigarette packs without ads are also introduced. It raises the level of regulation on various prices and non-prices for alcohol. First of all, research and social discussions on how to impose health promotion charges are expected to take place. Director Isu-ran said, “Since soju is an item that the common people use a lot (inappropriately imposing a boost), there is controversy, so I will go through discussion and review first while looking at foreign cases. In addition, it suggested strengthening legislation to regulate drinking in public places and expanding media to apply alcohol advertising bans. For nutrition management, it is also promoted to provide a nationally recognized nutritional component database, as well as segmentation of nutrient intake standards by chronic disease and life cycle. We will continue to promote physical activity through the introduction of a health-friendly company certification system and health incentive system. This year, a pilot project by dentists will be introduced for 4th graders, and visiting oral health care services for vulnerable groups such as long-term care patients will be strengthened. The number of oral treatment centers will increase from 12 last year to 18 in 2023. It also includes a plan to identify and manage high-risk groups of suicide predictions and strengthen the support for counseling treatment to reduce the number of suicide deaths per 100,000 people from 26.6 in 2018 to 17 in 2030. The prevention and management of major diseases such as dementia, alcohol use disorder, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer will continue to be strengthened. The gap between incomes and regions of healthy life expectancy is also narrowing. As of 2018, the gap between the top 20% and the bottom 20% of the income level is 8.1 years old, and the goal is to reduce this to under 7.6 years by 2030. The growing gap in health life spans between regions is managed from 2.7 years old in 2018 to 2.9 years old in 2030. The Ministry of Health and Welfare explained that the average health life span of the top 10 cities, counties, and gus is 74.2 years old, while the average of the bottom 10 is 65.2 years old, and the gap is 8 years old, so more policy efforts are needed.” To close the gap, support such as expansion of regional cardiovascular disease centers, introduction and institutionalization of health impact assessments, and consultation bodies for building a healthy city will be promoted. By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter [email protected]