The Human Costs of Tobacco Use

Abstract

The per capita consumption of cigarettes has risen and fallen, depending on particular events ( Figure 3 )⁶⁹. Deaths from smoking-related illnesses, however, have climbed, possibly reaching a peak or plateau in 1988¹. Studies⁷⁰ have placed 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, a value that would surely exceed $100 billion in current dollars. The estimated average lifetime medical costs for a smoker exceed those for a nonsmoker by more than $6,000⁷¹. This excess is a weighted average of costs incurred by all smokers, whether or not smoking-related illnesses develop. For smokers in whom such illnesses do develop, the personal financial impact is much higher⁷¹. The economic effect of smoking has not been overlooked by the life-insurance companies. Time magazine reported⁷² that even three insurance firms owned by tobacco companies charge smokers nearly double for term life insurance, because smokers are about twice as likely as nonsmokers to die at a given age.