The High Costs of Cigarette Smoking

Smoking cigarettes is an expensive habit. An ordinary cigarette smoker incurs enormous cost to sustain this unhealthy lifestyle and the costs do not pertain solely to the smoker. There are negative effects of cigarette smoking to the body, to the immediate family, to society, and to the economy.

The most obvious cost of smoking cigarettes is the daily, weekly and monthly financial cost. Cigarettes now cost an average of $4.00 per pack. Imagine smoking a pack of cigarettes per day at $4.00 per day. The money spent on cigarette smoking could amount to almost $1500 in a year! Just think what you could do with that kind of money. However, the costs of cigarette smoking are not solely financial. The number of smoking related diseases such as cancer, respiratory problems and heart ailments increase yearly while a cigarette smoker may have his life expectancy reduced by 10-15 years.

Medical expenditures will also have to be addressed as most, if not all, smoke related illnesses require treatment, services and medication. Health care services are not cheap.

At the same time, there will be lost productivity when the cigarette smoker is forced to retire to the hospital bed and refrain from working. Thus the earning capacity declines. Instead of bringing in more money to the household, the money had to be taken out.

The environment of the smoker will also deteriorate because of the fumes. The car is one place where the smoker could comfortably light up a cigarette. Definitely, the interior will smell, ashes will accumulate and upholstery may get burn holes. Same thing goes if the smoker freely lights up anywhere inside his or her house.

Furthermore, cigarette smoking gives a higher risk of starting a fire. Countless fires have originated from a cigarette left lit.

Smokers also harm their neighbors through secondhand smoke. Non-smokers exposed to the carbons emitted are susceptible to smoking related diseases. If these exposed non-smokers have illnesses, secondhand smoking could further aggravate the situation.

In acquiring insurance policies, there is the trend now to charge higher premiums to smokers since the cigarette smoker is considered a high-risk.

Cigarette smoking also affects the overall aesthetics of the person. These are offshoots of smoking that cannot be disregarded as they affect the self regard of the person and also his or her relationship with others. Rectifying these could actually cost money. For example, having yellow teeth means extra charge from the dentist aside from the usual cleaning.

Smoking cigarettes also makes clothes dirty and the results often require the services of a dry cleaner to be remedied. The smoke can even result in a bad smell in the skin and hair.

Of course, smoking cigarettes has emotional costs as well. The dependence to cigarette smoking when one gets addicted can be very restricting. There is also the pressure to quit smoking as the smoker realizes the harmful effects to himself and to his or her family.

Unfortunately for many, there is the constant sense of helplessness in addressing the cigarette smoking habit and its side effects. A person with a smoking-related disease will not be the only one who will suffer from these high costs of cigarette smoking. Immediate family members and friends will definitely feel the burden of this harmful addiction to smoking cigarettes.

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