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From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.med,net.consumers,net.politics
Subject: Re: The Hidden Costs of Smoking
Message-ID: <164@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Jan-86 19:07:04 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.164
Posted: Mon Jan 20 19:07:04 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jan-86 05:15:39 EST
References: <162@decvax.UUCP> <1970@psuvax1.UUCP>
Reply-To: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin minow)
Organization: DEC - ULTRIX Engineering Group
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Xref: watmath net.med:3204 net.consumers:3960 net.politics:13080

Responding to my note on the economic costs of smoking, Piotr Berman
points out correctly that smokers who die in middle age will have paid
into their retirement funds, but will not collect from them. I was remiss
in not quoting the following from the Wellness Letter article:

    Of course, the smoking habit is not likely to vanish overnight.
    Even if it did, it would take a few years for the economic benefits
    to start accruing.  *Not* smoking might create some economic
    problems, too; the OTA report points out that people who now die
    in middle age would live to collect their social security benefits.
    On the other hand, these people would be productive longer.

He also suggests that the "other real losses, such as those from
cigarrete-caused fires, which kill 1,500 people yearly" (q. Wellness Letter)
"are not included because apparently they are trivial." (q. Berman)

If we arbitrarily set the value of life at $100,000, the 1,500 deaths
alone cause $150 million in losses.  While this may be trivial in
relation to the $39 to $96 billion in total costs, its a tidy sum
in itself.

Quoting from the Wellness Letter:

    In the end, the benefits enjoyed by a nonsmoking nation can
    hardly be calculated in dollars.  What matters more for most
    of us are the profits and losses logged up in the health column,
    which are unarguable.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow