| |
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. |
