About 25% of our population still smokes! Most are closet smokers. Still, “Each year, 440,000 people die from smoking related diseases.” American Cancer Society
Cost of Cigarettes
Most people can not tell you how much cigarettes cost them each month. When asked, they can tell you how many they smoke in a day and how much they cost but they avoid doing the math. We like to keep ourselves in the dark about some matters. Because if we knew how horrible death would be from smoking and much we were spending, we might have to re-consider that behavior.
Now, since gas prices are soaring and the economy is slowing, people are beginning re-think that expensive habit. So let me help you get out of the dark. If you are smoking a pack a day, you are spending about $127 per month or $1,530 per year. That’s if you smoke a standard, full tar cigarette, at $4.25 per pack (if you live in Canada it is more like $10.00 per pack). Some people are even spending $100.00 per month on the prescription drug Chantix taking about 6 months to complete the treatment. And oh, those “possible side effects”. Hypnosis takes only one or two visits with most practitioners and costs considerably less but has no negative side effects.
It’s not just the cost of the cigarettes. “The costs add up: Cigarettes, dry cleaning, insurance – you can even lose your job. A 40 year old who quits and puts the savings into a 401(k) could save almost $250,000 by age 70.” Quote from www.msn.com on the high cost of smoking.
Cost of Insurance
“The average smoker will pay at least 40% more for life coverage than they would if they were a non-smoker. Some insurance companies are more forgiving than others depending on the company you choose, you could pay up to 55% more for your life insurance. Being a smoker affects all forms of life and health based insurance, including critical illness coverage and income protection.” Quoted from ezines.com
However, once you have stopped smoking for even one year, your life insurance could be significantly reduced, and could be reduced again after being a non-smoker for two years. Contact your provider for specific information.
Cost of the smell
Some of my clients say that after they smoke a cigarette, they don’t want to hug or kiss their boyfriend or girlfriend, spouse, or their kids. The effect is less love and affection. And they avoid smoking around their kids so they sneak off to the garage and if the kids come out to talk with them, they make them go away (to avoid the second hand smoke). But the cost is that the parent avoids the kids and then the kids are sent away from the parent.
Then there is the cost of selling a car that smells like cigarette smoke, or selling the house with the smell of cigarette smoke on the walls, carpets and drapes. Some people won’t smoke in their car or home for those reasons and because they don’t want to offend family or friends who may travel in their car or visit their home.
Social Costs
Many people are closet smokers. Nobody knows they smoke (or at least they would like to believe people don’t see them or smell them). They say it is very stressful to take great pains to find time and place to smoke, hide the paraphernalia and to cover up the smell.
And smokers complain that when they are at a movie, out to dinner, at a party that they have to leave their friends or families just to have a cigarette. The effect is that they miss out on whatever fun is going on.
Cost of compromised Immune System
But what is the real cost of smoking? It’s not the money you spend daily on cigarettes. It’s the cost of a compromised immune system. It’s the collected small cost of all the common colds for which you must pay a co-pay at the doctor’s office, the cost of overusing antibiotics, it’s all the sick-days off work, periodontal disease, the asthma, the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), emphysema, heart attack, stroke or cancer, to name just a few. Cigarette smoking adversely affects every single organ in the body.
Cost of health care
“The total cost of caring for people with health problems caused by cigarette smoking — counting all sources of medical payments — is about $72.7 billion per year, according to health economists at the University of California.” Quoted from: www.berkeley.com
Cost to businesses
Smokers may take a break before beginning a project or after completing a project. And now that they have to go outside to smoke, they take extra time away from their work. Sometimes they avoid co-workers or clients because they don’t want to offend with the smell of the smoke on their breath, hair and clothing. Many say they are embarrassed that they are a smoker. They take time to brush their teeth, spray cologne and wash their hands often. In some cases, while a smoker is “out back” smoking, valuable customers are left at the counter or waiting room or the phone is not being answered.
“Smoking cost the nation about $92 billion in the form of lost productivity in 1997-2001, up about $10 billion from the annual mortality related productivity losses for the years 1995-1999, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new lost productivity estimate when combined with smoking-related health-care costs, which was reported at $75.5 billion in 1998, exceeds $167 billion per year in the United States.” Quoted from the Center for Disease Control
Cost to the fetus
Mothers who smoke cause serious problems for themselves and their unborn children. Birth defects cause lifelong problems for the parents and children. Not to mention the health care costs of taking care of babies born with birth defects.
Cost to Babies
Babies naturally bond to the touch and scent of their mother and father. What if the mother and father smoke? Many of my clients say they “like” the smell of cigarette smoke, that it reminds them of their mother or father. How sad is that!
Cost to Kids
Annual expenditures through Social Security Survivors Insurance for the more than 300,000 kids who have lost at least one parent from smoking-caused death: 2.6 billion.
That’s pretty sad, too.
Quoted from: http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf
Costs to Teenagers
Approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21. In 2005, 23 percent of high school students were current smokers. Over 8 percent of middle school students were current smokers in 2004. Tobacco advertising also plays an important role in encouraging young people to smoke before they are old enough to fully understand its long-term health risks. Quoted from the American Lung Association: http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=39853
Many of my clients say they started smoking because their parents or big brother or big sister or their entire families smoked. Some say they started because a cool friend of theirs smoked and they wanted to be like them. Others say they started because all their friends smoked and they wanted to be “in” the group. Some say they started out of rebellion. Teenagers are strongly influenced by television, popular musicians, actors and athletes and the media; film and news. How important is it to give them a better role model. It may save their life.
Costs to loved ones
Many of my clients say that they don’t want to put their loved ones through watching them die a long, slow, painful, suffering death. Many of these smokers have witnessed a parent, friend or neighbor die this way. Some also say that they want to be able to see their children or grandchildren grow up, graduate, get married, and have families. Some say they want to regain their energy so they can keep up with their children or grandchildren.
Conclusion
With the emotional costs to our families, the slowing economy, rising gas prices and health care costs in mind, can you STILL afford to smoke?
Additional Points:
Our behaviors, moods and attitudes influence everyone around us. Behaviors, moods and attitudes radiate out like a pebble in a pond. What do you radiate? What do you want to radiate?
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