Externalities Of Smoking

Of every ten dollars spent on healthcare in the United States, almost 90 cents is due to smoking. Over 18 percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes and one in five deaths are caused by smoking, according to the CDC. Cigarettes can cause heart and lung problems, eye disease, skin problems, and many cancers. These facts show that cigarettes affect healthcare costs.

Secondly, smoking is costly. In the United States annually there is $193 billion spent on smoking related things. Whether it is for

understanding, most tobacco companies are targeting young people as replacement smokers. They use different strategies that encourage teenagers and young adults to start or continue consuming their products (NIDA, 2012).

I’ve decided to analyze the negative externalities that come from cigarette smoking, particularly the negative externality of second hand smoking, in which a non-smoker, therefore a non-buyer and non-seller, is still inhaling smoke and suffering from it. "Worldwide, 40% of children, 33% of male non-smokers, and 35% of female non-smokers were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2004. This exposure was estimated to have caused 379000 deaths from ischaemic heart disease, 165000 from lower respiratory infections, 36900 from asthma, and 21400 from lung cancer."(Öberg, 2010). Due to this negative externality, if there is no government intervention, then cigarettes will be overproduced from what is socially optimal.

A study of more recent number shows that annual smoking related economic cost in the US are calculated to be between 289 billion dollar, and 332.5 billion dollars (cancer.org). To further understand what this means, one must break down these numbers. In the total provided earlier, factors included consist of: 132.5 billion dollars to 175.9 billion dollars for direct medical care of adults (caner.org), 151 billion dollars for loss of productivity that was a result of premature deaths (cancer.org), and 5.6 billion dollars for a lost productivity due to exposure ok smoke, or secondhand smoke (cancer.org). To put this simply, around 332.billion dollars each year is wasted on smoking.

In the past decades, an increasing number of countries have imposed a ban on smoking in public places, including restaurants and bars. Unlike other regulations of cigarettes such as tax or promoting ban, this territorial smoking control sparked heated debates. While some argue that the implementation of this regulation is inefficient and reduce the public welfare (Viscusi, 1994; Tollison and Wagner, 1992; Lambert, 2006), others claim that smokers do impose negative externalities to both non-smokers and themselves (Gravelle and Zimmerman, 1994; Hanson and Logue, 1998).

One in every five deaths in the united states is smoking related. Many people smoke many different kinds of cigarettes and many of these people are addictive and it is extremely difficult for them to quit even though it results in lung cancer. There are many reasons why people choose to start this horrible habit which is being stressed, being around people who smoke, doing it for pleasure and being depressed. There are definitely many negative risks associated with smoking cigarettes such as lung cancer that is because cigarettes are damaging the cells that line the lungs and when people inhale any kind of cigarette smoke which is full of cancer-causing substances that are carcinogens and it affects the lung tissues immediately. One of the million hazardous effects of smoking is it shortens human life ten years or more. Smoking is one of the most horrible habits in society because it does not only affect the person who is smoking but affects all the people surrounding this individual. Smoking has three negative main effects on people’s health; it causes lung cancer, appearance, and loss of appetite.

The most unfortunate thing of our society is people are being judged by their drinking and smoking habit which should only be a choice of that person who is using it for whatever reason. Now if a woman smokes up, first of all her character would suddenly be misinterpreted, then if she drinks alcohol, it is almost catastrophic for her health according to the mentality and lack of knowledge of people in our society; not only that, in India smoking and drinking publically for women is a bizarre, it seems as she has made some crime. Of course smoking causes many diseases it’s a different issue but it can’t define woman’s personality or her nature.

The government should ban smoking due to the burden on the public healthcare system stemming from the various diseases caused by tobacco. The diseases caused by smoking tobacco are among the most prominent causes of preventable deaths in the world, including cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, liver cancer, respiratory diseases, and other dangerous conditions. Smoking results in a broad range of diseases, including respiratory problems, lung cancer, mouth cancer, liver cancer, and several other disorders mainly because of the hazardous chemicals in cigarettes. Cigarette smoking and tobacco use significantly increase the risk of liver cancer, especially in the case of chain smokers that consume more than 40 cigarettes per day (Hsing, McLaughlin and Hrubec 218). Smoking cigarettes not only affects the health of the public but also puts a significant dent in the personal and public economic spheres. The cost to purchase cigarettes on a regular basis considerably increases the expenditures of the smokers. On the other hand, the medical services required for diseases related to smoking also increase the burden of the public health costs.

Cigarette consumption is a worldwide growing business that concerns about the health problems issue publicly by providing all the maternal element that used to make health strategy weak and down. The impact of the anti-smoking campaign on the consumption of cigarettes is measured by fitting cigarette demand functions to pre-campaign dat, projecting "ahead" as if the campaign had not occurred, and then comparing these predictions with realized consumption. However, the cumulative effect of persistent publicity supported by other public policies, has been substantial: in the absence of the campaign, per capita consumption likely would have exceeded its actual 1975 value by 20 to 30 per cent. This is a conservative indication of the effectiveness of the campaign, for it ignores other potentially important and desirable behavior changes, such as the shift to low "tar" and nicotine cigarettes.

From the 1920’s to 1960’s smoking was known to be sexy, glamorus and refreshing. Smoking was part of the norm in society and continued to grow tremendously during the 20th century, up until the 70’s when the idea of smoking turned into a method for weight loss. More and more people wanted to smoke because of all the benefits they thought it would bring to them. With the increase knowledge of health effects in the late 20th century, many people learned that smoking wasn’t safe for our bodies. Smoking turned into the opposite of what it once was, now it is known to be very deadly and it is not promoted by. Now we all know smoking is bad for our health, but how bad is bad? Smoking can negatively transform people's lives. Did you know, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States? Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, with more than 41,000 of those deaths from exposure to secondhand smoke. (citation)

Nicotine increases the heart rate, which means that the heart of the smoker is forced to “work” more to have the same performance as the heart of a nonsmoker.

This cost is only the cost of the cigarettes alone. Cigarettes and other tobacco products cause numerous health problems, and the health expenses are the real reason cigarettes cost the user. Based on research done at Duke University, it was estimated that “the combined price paid by their families and society is about $40 per pack of cigarettes,” around 33 of which are paid by the user (“Cigarettes Cost a Total of $40 a Pack”). This puts pack-a-day users at the incredible total of around $12,045 paid by the user for every year following this habit. The remaining seven dollars per pack is either paid for by the family of the user, or it is paid for by society as a whole. This brings about another reason smoking is not just expensive to the user, but to the economy of the whole country. For every single smoker in the United States, the country as a whole pays on average “$4,196--including higher medical and insurance costs, time lost through smoking rituals, burn damage to furniture, adverse effects on non-smokers, [as well as] maintenance and cleaning costs” (“Hidden Annual Costs of Smoking”). With around 15% of the United States’ population smoking, this is an insanely high cost to the United States industry. If no one smoked, then more than 200 billion dollars would be saved every year in the US alone. Not only do cigarettes cost a lot to the user and the economy, but their effects impact people close to them through secondhand smoke.

Many people smoke in the United States and in every hour fifty one people die due to smoking which is about one person every minute. Even though smoking is bad it helps the government and the people. Smoking doesn’t kill a person it does more than that. It changes your appearance, health, and affects the people around you. Many people should understand that smoking is not good for their health. One should consider the consequences of smoking. Every time a person smokes they are just pulling the trigger to kill themselves.

Smoking refers to the inhalation and exhalation of fumes from burning tobacco encased in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. Most people smoke because they are addicted to the habit of smoking while some want to relive the stress from work or other sources. A majority of health experts consider smoking as a psychological addiction which results serious health issues. In spite of severe hazardous affects and diseases produced from smoking tobacco, people still smoke regularly and are careless about harmful effects. The chemistry of tobacco is very complex and contains approximately 7,000 chemical compounds and also some harmful gases. Researchers have identified more than 250 harmful chemicals and at least 69 of them are responsible to produce cancer in humans. In order to know more about smoking, one must focus on facts and statistics of smoking cigarette, cigar and pipes, explaining the effects of smoking and second hand smoking on human health, why people do not quit smoking and how to educate them about the bad effects of smoking.