The Cost of Smoking

Smoking costs more than just a few bucks for a pack of butts. It costs lives, and those lost lives cost billions of dollars every year in the state of North Carolina alone.

Costs of Smoking: Dollars

Total annual health care costs in North Carolina directly caused by smoking are estimated at $2.46 billion.
Total annual losses in productivity in North Carolina caused by smoking are estimated at $3.3 billion.

These figures do not include health problems caused cased by secondhand smoke, smoking-caused fires, spit tobacco use, or cigar and pipe smoking. Other non-health costs from tobacco include property losses from smoking-caused fires (more than $500 million per year nationwide); extra cleaning and maintenance costs related to tobacco smoke and litter (about $4 billion plus nationwide for businesses alone); and additional productivity losses from smoking-caused work absences, smoking breaks, and people who are fired for or whose performance is reduced by smoking-related illness or disability. (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2007)

Costs of Smoking: Death

Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States, and in North Carolina, too. Did you know that on average, smokers die nearly seven years earlier than nonsmokers? (CDC, 1994) More than half of those unable or unwilling to quit die from smoking.

Every day in North Carolina, 33 people die from smoking. That's 33 people every day with lives and friends and families who would still be alive if it weren't for cigarettes. That's like having two major airline disasters in our state every week, all year round. These deaths account for one out of every five deaths in our state.
In the U.S. and N.C., cigarette smoking causes more premature deaths than AIDS, cocaine, heroin, alcohol (including drunk drivers), fires, car accidents, murder, and suicide - combined!! (JAMA, 1987) (NC TPCB, 2006)
The fact is, about 90 percent of adult smokers began their deadly addiction before leaving their teens! (SAMHSA, 2005)
The deaths in North Carolina caused by smoking are staggering. It is estimated that 11,500 deaths annually are caused by smoking in our state.