BACK TO NJ ASSIST (Stop Smoking)                                PAGE Dated: 1997

" The Human Costs of Tobacco Use"


Source: McKenzie, T. D. Bartecchi, C. E. And Schrier, R. W.

The New England Journal Of Medicine,

Vol. 330 No. 14 pgs. 975-980.

-The costs of smoking for the United States as a whole at a staggering $65 billion in 1985 in terms of health care expenditures and lost productivity.

- The estimated average lifetime medical costs for a smoker exceed those for a nonsmoker by more than $6,000.11

- Time magazine reported that even three insurance firms owned by tobacco companies charge smokers nearly double for term life insurance.

- The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment estimated in its 1993 report' that the total financial cost of smoking to society in 1990 was $2.59 per pack of cigarettes.

- Cigarette smokers are absent from work approximately 6.5 days more per year than nonsmokers. They make about six visits more to health care facilities per year than nonsmokers, and dependents of smokers make about four visits more per year than nonsmokers.

- With the use of 1985 figures, the costs of lost productivity due to passive smoking were estimated to be $8.6 billion annually.

- In 1992, Philip Morris made more money - $4.9 billion- than any other company in America.