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Cost Of Habit For Average Connecticut Smoker Totals $2.1M Over Lifetime

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- For all of the smokers out there, the news isn't that smoking can ruin your health and lead to death, it's that it can also burn a nasty hole through your wallet. 

Smokers living in Connecticut will spend more than $2 million over their lifetime on cigarettes and the associated health care costs.

Smokers living in Connecticut will spend more than $2 million over their lifetime on cigarettes and the associated health care costs.

 Photo Credit: wikipedia.org
K Reakes
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The numbers are pretty startling: Tobacco use accounts for nearly a half-million premature deaths in the U.S. each year and is the leading cause of lung cancer, according to the American Lung Association. But the economic costs are just as staggering, according to the website WalletHub. 

Every year, Americans spend a total of $326 billion on cigarettes, including nearly $170 billion in direct health-care costs and more than $156 billion in lost productivity, WalletHub said.

To encourage the more than 66 million smokers in the U.S. to kick the habit, WalletHub’s analysts calculated the potential monetary losses — including the cumulative cost of a pack per day over several decades, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs — brought on by smoking. 

The Financial Cost of Smoking in Connecticut: 

  • Out-of-Pocket Cost per Smoker: $152,848 
  • Financial Opportunity Cost per Smoker: $1,445,342 
  • Health-Care Cost per Smoker: $241,423 
  • Income Loss per Smoker: $285,188
  • Other Costs per Smoker: $13,338
  •  Total Cost Over a Lifetime per Smoker: $2,138,139 

For the full report, click here. 

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