Cost of Smoking Tobacco - Information and Calculator
Learn more about the problem that American individuals and employers face with smoking.
The Smoking Problem
A National Problem
- In the United States, an estimated 25.1 million men (23.4 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.5 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
A Workplace Problem
- Cigarette smokers are absent from work 6.5 days per year more than nonsmokers.
- Approximately eight percent of a smoker's working hours are spent on smoking rituals. This equals 38 minutes per day and over 166.4 hours per year. With the national wage at $16.75 per hour, this equals $2,787.20 per year in "paid smoking time" for just one smoking employee.
- Smokers make about six more visits to health care facilities per year than nonsmokers. In a study of health care utilization in 20,831 employees of a single, large employer, smokers had more hospital admissions per 1,000 (124 vs. 76 admissions), a longer average length of stay (6.47 vs. 5.03 days), higher average costs for outpatient visits ($122 vs. $75), and a higher average insured payment for health care ($1,145 vs. $762).
- Average lifetime medical care costs for male smokers are 32 percent higher than for men who have never smoked. For female smokers, that cost is 24 percent.
- Estimated medical costs attributable to smoking in the US in 1993 were $50 billion. This includes hospital expenses, physician expenses, nursing homes, prescription drugs and home health care expenses.
The Cost of Smoking
Employee smoking results in significant direct and indirect costs to employers. Reducing the number of employees who smoke can save your company a lot of money!
Here are just a few of the employer costs increased by employee smoking:
- Health insurance costs and claims
- Life insurance costs and claims
- Lost productivity
- Absenteeism
- Air cooling, heating, and ventilation costs
- Recruitment and retraining costs resulting from loss of employees to smoking-related death and disability
- Worker's compensation payments and occupational health awards
- Disability retirements
- Litigation costs
- Accidents and fires (plus related insurance costs)
- Property damage (plus related insurance costs)
- Smoke pollution (leading to increased cleaning and maintenance costs)
- Illness and discomfort among nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke
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Information on this page has come from these and other sources:
- Center for Health Promotion and Publications. The Dollar (and sense) Benefits of Having a Smoke-Free Workplace. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Tobacco Control Program; 2000.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Office on Smoking and Health, USDHHS, Wellness Council of America, American Cancer Society. Making your workplace smokefree: A decision maker's guide 1996.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Office on Smoking and Health, USDHHS, Wellness Council of America, American Cancer Society. Making your workplace smokefree: A decision maker's guide 1996.
- NC Prevention Partners. Buying Prevention Related Benefits: A 5-Step Guide for NC Employers.