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From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.med,net.consumers,net.politics
Subject: The Hidden Costs of Smoking
Message-ID: <162@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Jan-86 19:23:05 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.162
Posted: Thu Jan 16 19:23:05 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jan-86 20:56:07 EST
Lines: 26
Xref: lsuc net.med:1936 net.consumers:2285 net.politics:2911

The "Wellness Letter", a newsletter published by the University of
California, published an article on the hidden (pocketbook) costs of
smoking.  The article quoted a report to Congress by the Office of
Technology Assessment.  The report estimated that "the annual medical
bill for lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and other ailments
directly attributable to smoking runs between $12 billion and $35
billion annually." 

Also, "an estimated $27 billion to $61 billion evaporates each year
because of sick days, lost wages, and lower productivity. This is a
rough figure that includes such items as the projected earnings of
those who die of smoking-related diseases."  But, it doesn't include
"other real losses, such as those from cigarrete-caused fires, which
kill 1,500 people yearly and injure another 4,000." 

"Karl Kronebusch, project director at OTA, states the cost as follows:
when averaged out, smoking costs evry man, woman, and child in the
United States from $110 to $260 per year in lost productivity and
wages.  When you add to that another $50 to $150 annually in medical
care (paid for primarily by taxes and health insurance premiums), that
comes to $160 per capita on the low side, $410 on the high side." 

Abstracted by

Martin Minow
decvax!minow