Dec 27, 2013 12:44 PM EST By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Curbing interstate trafficking of cigarettes could boost public health benefits of state cigarette tax policies and increase revenue, according to a new study Reuters reported.

Researchers from the nonprofit organization RTI International in North Carolina contend that without a national tracking system in place to trace cigarette packs from manufacturers to consumers, smokers avoid paying taxes, local governments miss out on additional revenue and there's less of a barrier to youth smoking.

"The track-and-trace program could be similar to tracking a UPS package," study co-author Susan Kansagra of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told Reuters.

Analysts focused on five northeastern U.S.  cities in their research.

The study suggests if trafficking was stopped, the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Providence and the District of Columbia could collect between $690 million and $729 million per year in cigarette taxes.  

"Where illegal trafficking exists, taxes are not being paid, but also the person who buys the product pays less," Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, told Reuters. She was not involved in the research.

Researchers predict that if New York City got rid of trafficking, it would be a lot difficult for youth to have access to smoking. They estimate that close to 5 percent of young people would never pick up a cigarette in the first place. They also estimate that adults would decrease their cigarette consumption by 7 percent, Reuters reported.

"If there's a lower price, then there is less incentive to reduce smoking," Cohen added.

For the study, researchers collected  cigarette packaging litter in 2011  in "specific Census tracts within city limits" and checked the local tax stamps, a method used to give them a "good sense of what is happening at the street level," Davis told Reuters.

Of the 1,439 cigarette packs they collected, close to 59 percent lacked tax stamps that corresponded with the "geographic location they were found."

In the journal Tobacco Control, Researchers reported that Virginia largest single source of out-of-state cigarettes found in New York City and Pennsylvania was the most significant source of non-local packs found in Boston.

According to Reuters, researchers said it is possible some a portion of the cigarette packs found were purchased in another state by individuals for their own use, which is not illegal.

Reuters reported that the federal Tobacco Act of 2009 gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to implement a nationwide track-and-trace system. Earlier this year, the government agency was petitioned by the City of New York to work on such project. Executives with the American Heart Association and American Lung Association also co-signed the letter.

"The Food and Drug Administration has the authority to put a track-and-trace system in place, and they need to act on this authority," Dr. Donna Shelley of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York told Reuters.

Cohen said another possible solution is to equalize taxes "and close tax loopholes that incentivize cross-border smuggling in the first place."

"If all states raised their tobacco taxes to an average level - that would help," she said. "We know what we have to do about this. Now it's time to act," Cohen said. "We don't need more research. We need action."

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