For over 50 years, the Surgeon General has been warning about the dangers of tobacco use and smoking. The most recent report, The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General, offers information and statistics related to the monetary costs and physical dangers of smoking. Although the number of people who smoke has declined, if the current rates remain the same, nearly 6 million Americans who are alive today and under the age of 18 will die prematurely from a disease related to smoking. Additionally, half of the people today who continue to smoke will die prematurely due to a smoking-related condition.
The Monetary Aspect of Smoking
The burden of disease, disability and death due to the use of tobacco
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With cigarettes costing the smoker $5.51 a pack, if an individual smokes one pack of cigarettes a day it costs him or her $2,011.15 a year. The cost to society and the state’s economy totals $6,588.25 a year, for each one pack a day smoker.
From 2000 to 2012, the U.S. spent $133 Billion on healthcare costs related to tobacco use; furthermore, productivity loss adds another $156 Billion for a grand total of $289 Billion in costs related to tobacco use.
The Physical Dangers of Smoking
With tobacco smoke containing nearly 10,000 compounds and chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic, smoking puts an individual at risk for numerous illnesses and conditions. Smoking causes one out of three cancer deaths in the U.S. and according to Mayo Clinic, every year, lung cancer kills more Americans than breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers do combined. Smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths in the U.S.
Some of the Cancers that Smoking Causes include:
Mouth Lips Tongue Throat Larynx (voice
A study was conducted and the outcome showed that billions of dollars are lost on productivity by Americans due to tobacco effect. The study also reported that tobacco is the prominent preventable cause of diseases and premature death. Some of the illnesses associated with smoking include cancer,
The century-long epidemic of cigarette smoking has caused a public health concern of epic proportions. As health concerns about tobacco developed during the 1960s, the federal government moved in and initiated Tobacco Control laws. Smoking among adults in the mid-1960’s was prevalent with 42% of the population smoking compared to 18% in 2012. In 1964, the first report of the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health identified smoking as a cause of increased mortality.
Smoking-related causes are responsible for over $96 billion in healthcare expenditures in the U.S. alone. The average medical cost per pack of cigarettes is $5.31. So, for every pack someone buys, they will be paying double because of the horrible health effects. Researchers have also discovered that there is a wage gap between smokers and non-smokers. This is caused by productivity loss, health-related absences, and workplace bias. The average smoker earns 8% less than a non-smoker of the same background. Putting that in perspective, the average hourly wage is $25, and that adds up to a monthly loss of $275. That multiplies to a loss of $3,306 a year. That is a lot of
The CDC reports that 46 million Americans age 18 or older smoke cigarettes. Smoking for teens may be worst than adults that smoke. When teens smoke, it stunts their growth and development. Adults on the other hand are already developed but it stills wrecks their body. When a person starts smoking at a younger age, they will start to age more and your health will become worst as they get older. Cigarettes and other tobacco products cost a lot. If a smoker is up to a pack a day, it will most likely cost about $2,777.65 per year. Any smoker should know that smoking can cost them their looks and money, but most importantly their health. Cigarettes contain a lot of chemicals but the tar is the main chemical that will ruin the lungs. Smokers compared
Tobacco companies make a lot of profit on cigarettes, and they want shoppers to keep buying their product. They only concern about how much money they are going to make; they do not care about how it will affect other people’s health. An average pack of cigarette is about five dollars, but imagine smoking about two packs day that would be three thousand three hundred and sixty dollars a year. According to Werner, "supporters of FDA bill cited figures from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention that smokers coat the country $96 billion a year in direct health care costs, and an additional $97 billion a year in lost productivity". Smokers are not only spending their own money on cigarettes, but they are also spending tax payer’s money on
are preventable (US Department of Health & Human Services, 2014). Additionally, the health care costs of smoking amount to $96 billion each year (Barendregt et al., 1997). Yet, this is an underestimate of the total costs of smoking because of the many externalities associated with cigarette consumption. Clean-up and secondhand smoke are two common examples of these externalities. For instance, cigarette butts
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It causes many different diseases like cancer and lung disease etc. Each day more than 3,200 people under 18 smoke there first cigarette, and 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers. 9 to 10 smokers start before 18, and 98% start by the age of 26. From 1964 to 2014 the proportion of adults smokers declined from 42.0% to 18.0%. More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964, including approximately 2.5 million deaths due to exposure to secondhand smoke. 5.6 million children alive today will die early from smoking. That is equal to 1 child out of every 13 alive in the US today. 18 million males over the age of 20 suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED). Smoking
Tobacco can cause nearly 6 millions deaths per year. If the current trends stay the same there will be nearly 8 million deaths per year by 2030. If smoking continues in Americans younger than 18, around 5.6 million of America’s youth are expected to die prematurely from smoking. Life expectancy for smokers is at 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. Quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking related disease by about 90 percent. The younger a person is when they start smoking, the more likely they are to smoke for longer and to die earlier than people who do not smoke. The difference between morality and rates for both current smokers or former smokers and never smokers measures the avoidable increase related to cigarette smoking exposure. The number of premature deaths is the product of this difference and corresponding number of current or former
As health care providers, we have a duty to encourage and inform our patients and community about tobacco use. Over the last twenty years many studies and awareness campaigns have highlighted the risks associated with tobacco use. The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 reduced much of the tobacco advertising directed to young people. Also, “With the passage of the 2009 legislation giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products and advertising has proven effective” (National Center, 1970). Even with these programs and regulations, the use of tobacco rages on bringing disastrous effects to the individual. Tobacco causes reduced overall health and harms virtually every organ of the body. Tobacco is
Secondly, smoking is costly. In the United States annually there is $193 billion spent on smoking related things. Whether it is for
Smoking or exposure to others’ tobacco smoke not only threatens the attainment of non-smoker life expectancy, but also severely diminishes the attainment of a healthy life span. Recent data from the US Health and Retirement Study found that heavily smoking males aged 50–54 loses on average about 2 years of healthy living plus about 2 years of life span; for heavily smoking women the figures are 1.66 years of lost health and 1.44 years earlier death than non-smokers. Many non-fatal diseases caused or exacerbated by tobacco reduce quality of life, such as blindness from age-related macular degeneration or cataracts, Crohn’s disease and duodenal ulcers, hip fracture, periodontitis and ectopic pregnancy.
Every year, almost half a million Americans die prematurely from smoking or from exposure to secondhand smoke. The use of tobacco is one of the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It has been known to causes many different cancers, as well as chronic lung diseases. Yet nearly forty million adults in the US still smoke cigarettes.
Smoking is a dangerous and addictive habit; each year about 440,000 people perish in the United States due to tobacco smoking (Maugh). From those
The costs of cigarettes are tremendous, roughly eight dollars a pack. With many people smoking between one to two packs a day, that sums up to roughly one hundred and twelve dollars a week. People are just throwing their money to the big corporations that produce the cigarettes, in return for negative results. Tobacco doesn’t have a single target for who it wants to kill. It targets the rich or poor, healthy or sick. It’s the people that know better, than to buy cigarettes, who live long and healthy lives. But, the cost of cigarettes isn’t the only expenditure accumulated from smoking. Over the years the medical bills will pile up for vast reasons. Emphysema, COPD and many other conditions occur inside the body.
Cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). Although cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco consumption; all types of tobacco increase the risk of chronic disease and mortality (World Health Organization [WHO], 2016). These chronic diseases result in long term health consequences, such as dependency on medications and/or physical assistance, which increases work absenteeism and decreases work productivity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). Therefore, the societal consequences of smoking include increased mortality rates, decreases in productivity, and extensive health expenditures.