The Economic Costs of Cigarette Smoking

THE HEALTH HAZARDS of cigarette smoking are well established, as evidenced by the 1964 report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee and the 1967, 1968, and 1969 reports to Congress by the Public Health Service (1-4). An iinportant part of this evidence is represented by several major prospective studies of large population segments. These studies have revealed a far greater incidence of early death among smokers than among their nonsmoking counterparts. The evidence is consistent for major groups and for both sexes, and the health hazard increases with greater exposure to smoking. No attempt has yet been made in the United States to use data from these studies to assess another important part of the smoking problem-the magnitude of economic losses which smoking engenders. The incidence of sickness and death caused by or contributed to by cigarette smoking obviously drains our economy heavily by diverting scarce health resources from other needs and by reducing national economic production through early death and excess morbidity.