1,227 US Dollar – that’s how much the Czech Republic is supposed to save on health care, pensions, and housing every time a smoker dies according to a study conducted by the consulting firm Arthur D. Little commissioned by Philip Morris.[2] The tobacco company intended to impede a planned tobacco tax increase referencing the „indirect positive effects of smoking“. When the commissioned study became public in 2001, the Marlboro manufacturer apologized for calculating alleged savings effected by tobacco deaths.[3] The company stopped plans for similar calculations in countries such as Poland, Slowenia, and Hungary. In the Czech republic, the incident did only little damage to the company: president Milos Zeman visited the Czech Philip Morris factory, as did his predecessor Vaclav Klaus, and used this opportunity to admit his fondness for tobacco consumption and his sympathy to the tobacco industry.[4]
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