Smoking deaths cost U.S. $92 billion a year

Friday, July 1, 2005 | 9:16 a.m.

Smoking deaths cost the United States about $92 billion a year in lost productivity from 1997 to 2001, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The estimate is about $10 billion higher than a previous one for the years 1995 through 1999, the CDC, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said Thursday in a statement on its Web site. Total smoking-related costs in the United States are more than $167 billion a year, based on mortality-related lost productivity and smoking related health-care costs that were about $75.5 billion in 1998, the CDC said.

About 438,000 premature deaths occurred each year during the period from 1997 to 2001, the CDC said. That's less than an estimated 440,000 a year in 1995 through 1999, the agency said. The U.S. has made progress in reducing the number of smokers but still has much work to do, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said in the statement.

Smoking on average cuts adult life expectancy by about 14 years, the CDC said.

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