African Americans' attitudes toward cigarette excise taxes. (49/368)

OBJECTIVES: This study examined African Americans' opinions regarding cigarette excise taxes and other tobacco control issues. METHODS: A stratified cluster sample of US congressional districts represented by African Americans was selected. African Americans from 10 districts were interviewed. RESULTS: Forty-seven percent of respondents stated that taxes on tobacco products should be increased, whereas about 30% believed that they should be reduced. Almost 75% disagreed that raising taxes on tobacco products is unfair to African Americans, and 57.9% reported that they would not be opposed to increasing taxes on cigarettes even if low-income smokers would be hit the hardest. CONCLUSIONS: The present results indicate substantial support for cigarette excise taxes among African Americans.  (+info)

Improving nutrient efficiency as a strategy to reduce nutrient surpluses on dairy farms. (50/368)

Dutch nutrient policy aims at reducing leaching of agricultural nutrients by internalizing the negative externalities associated with inefficient nutrient use. This is done by taxation of nitrogen and phosphate surpluses that exceed a hectare-based threshold of maximum-allowed surpluses. One management strategy farmers may use to reduce the nutrient surpluses on their farms is to improve the nutrient efficiency of the agricultural production process. This study employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to calculate nitrogen and phosphate efficiencies and an overall nutrient efficiency measure for a 3-year panel of 114 Dutch dairy farms. Subsequent analyses show the impact of both farm intensity and nutrient efficiency on the nitrogen and phosphate surpluses. It appears that farm intensity has a positive effect on efficiency, but efficiency and intensity exert opposite influences on nutrient surpluses. This is especially the case for nitrogen. The magnitude of a possible reduction of nitrogen surpluses through a strategy of efficiency improvement is therefore limited by the intensity of the farming system, unless the technology with which nutrients are used by the farming system can be further improved or input/output ratios will be altered.  (+info)

Impact of tobacco tax reforms on tobacco prices and tobacco use in Australia. (51/368)

OBJECTIVE: To document the impact of changes to tobacco taxes on the range and price of tobacco sold during the period when the National Tobacco Campaign (NTC) was run. DATA SOURCES: Information about brand availability, pack size, and price was extracted from Australian Retail Tobacconist. A retail observational survey was undertaken to monitor actual retail prices. Data on cigarette prices, brands, packet configurations, and outlets from which they were purchased were obtained from the benchmark and three follow up population telephone surveys conducted to evaluate the NTC. METHOD: Data from the three sources were compared to see the extent to which the impact of tax changes had been offset by greater retail discounting and a more concerted effort by consumers to purchase cheaper products. RESULTS: Smokers were unable to cushion themselves from the sharp price increases that occurred during the third phase of the NTC. Both average recommended retail prices of manufactured cigarettes and average actual cigarette prices paid by smokers increased by 25% in real prices. CONCLUSION: The fall in smoking prevalence over the first two phases of the NTC was substantially greater than would be expected due to tax changes alone. The fall in smoking consumption over the first two phases was slightly less than would be expected and in the third considerably higher than would be expected.  (+info)

The built environment and its relationship to the public's health: the legal framework. (52/368)

The built environment significantly affects the public's health. This was most obvious when infectious disease was the primary public health threat during the industrial revolution; unsanitary conditions and overcrowded urban areas facilitated the spread of infection. However, even today in the age of chronic diseases there remains an important connection between population health and the built environment. Physical spaces can expose people to toxins or pollutants and influence lifestyles that contribute to diabetes, coronary vascular disease, and asthma. Public health advocates can help shape the design of cities and suburbs in ways that improve public health, but to do so effectively they need to understand the legal framework. This article reviews the connection between public health and the built environment and then describes the legal pathways for improving the design of our built environment.  (+info)

Conventional development versus managed growth: the costs of sprawl. (53/368)

OBJECTIVES: We examined the effects of sprawl, or conventional development, versus managed (or "smart") growth on land and infrastructure consumption as well as on real estate development and public service costs in the United States. METHODS: Mathematical impact models were used to produce US estimates of differences in resources consumed according to each growth scenario over the period 2000-2025. RESULTS: Sprawl produces a 21% increase in amount of undeveloped land converted to developed land (2.4 million acres) and approximately a 10% increase in local road lane-miles (188 300). Furthermore, sprawl causes about 10% more annual public service (fiscal) deficits ($4.2 billion US dollars) and 8% higher housing occupancy costs ($13 000 US dollars per dwelling unit). CONCLUSIONS: Managed growth can save significant amounts of human and natural resources with limited effects on traditional development procedures.  (+info)

Funding public health: The public's willingness to pay for domestic violence prevention programming. (54/368)

OBJECTIVES: The author investigated the willingness of the general public to pay for domestic violence prevention programs. METHODS: An experimental design was used in a telephone survey of 522 California adults. One of 11 funding methods and one of 4 dollar amounts were randomly assigned to each respondent. RESULTS: Most respondents (79.4%) reported support for domestic violence prevention programming. They were most willing to pay 5 US dollars or less via "user fees" (e.g., increased fines for batterers) and humanitarian "donations" (e.g., sales of special postage stamps). CONCLUSIONS: Health departments that want to increase their domestic violence prevention programming need to identify widely accepted methods by which funds can be raised. The methods used here can be applied to numerous public health activities and issues.  (+info)

Determinants of hospital tax-exempt debt yields: corrections for selection and simultaneous equation bias. (55/368)

The cost of capital for hospitals is a topic of continuing interest as Medicare's new capital payment policy is implemented. This study examines the determinants of tax-exempt revenue bond yields, the primary source of long-term capital for hospitals. Two important methodological issues are addressed. A probit analysis estimates the probability that a hospital or system will be observed in the tax-exempt market. A selection-corrected two-stage least squares analysis allows for the simultaneous determination of bond yield and bond size. The study is based on a sample of hospitals that issued tax-exempt revenue bonds in 1982-1984, the years immediately surrounding implementation of Medicare's new payment system based on diagnosis-related groups, and an equal number of hospitals not in the market during the study period. Results suggest that hospital systems and hospitals with high occupancy rates are most likely to enter the tax-exempt revenue bond market. The yield equation suggests that hospital-specific variables may not be good predictors of the cost of capital once estimates are corrected for selection.  (+info)

Public opinion regarding earmarked cigarette tax in Taiwan. (56/368)

BACKGROUND: Cigarette taxation has been perceived by academics and policy-makers as one of the most effective ways of reducing the use of cigarettes. On January 1 2002, the Taiwan government imposed a New Taiwan (NT) 5 dollars per pack tax earmarked for the purpose of tobacco control. This study uses a survey collected prior to taxation to assess public attitudes toward cigarette taxation, public beliefs about the effectiveness of cigarette taxation at reducing cigarette use and public opinions about the allocation of this tax revenue. METHODS: Data were drawn from a national face-to-face interview on cigarette consumption in 2000. A total of 3,279 adults were aged 18 to 64 years; 49.9% of whom were male and 50.1% female, and with a smoking prevalence of 49.1% and 4.1%, respectively. The attitudes toward cigarette tax were analysed using multi-logit regressions. We analysed by logistic regression the potential changes in smoking behaviour that smokers might make in response to the five NT (New Taiwan) dollar earmarked tax on cigarettes per pack. We summarized public opinions about the allocation of earmarked tax revenue using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Current smokers (OR = 0.34) and former smokers (OR = 0.68) were less likely to support the cigarette tax than non-smokers. A favourable attitude toward the tax was positively associated with personal monthly income, especially among females. Among male smokers, the possibility of reducing/quitting smoking in response to the five-NT-dollar tax was negatively associated with the monthly expense for smoking. The two most frequently-suggested areas to receive money from the revenue collected from the earmarked tax were health education and cancer subsidy. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking status and economic factors determine the attitude and potential responses of people toward the cigarette tax. Taiwan's five NT-dollar earmarked tax for cigarettes may have only a limited effect upon the reduction in cigarette use.  (+info)