Smoking costs US$1.4 trillion in health care and lost labour, study finds

Smoking cost the world economy more than US$1.4 trillion (1.3 trillion euros) in 2012, and sucked up a twentieth of health care spending, a study said Tuesday.

The killer habit consumed the equivalent of nearly two per cent of global economic output or GDP, according to experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the American Cancer Society, with almost 40 per cent of the burden falling on developing countries.

These included a US$422 billion price tag for treatment and hospitalisation, as well as indirect costs from labour lost to illness and death.

“Smoking imposes a heavy economic burden throughout the world, particularly in Europe and North America, where the tobacco epidemic is most advanced,” said the study published in the journal Tobacco Control.

“These findings highlight the urgent need for countries to implement stronger tobacco control measures to address these costs.”

The authors say the study is the first ever to include low- and middle-income countries in a more accurate estimate of the tobacco epidemic’s total, global cost.