The high cost of smoking
HRinNH
1,432 Posts
Many of my family members have been addicted to smoking (my mom for 44 yrs). I've hated watching what it has done to them physically and financially. I'll share this article with them too. It sounds like food for thought at least.
Cheryl C.
[b]The high cost of smoking[/b]
These days, smoking can even cost you your job, not to mention the expense of cigarettes, dry cleaning and insurance. But a 40-year-old pack-a-day smoker who quits and puts the savings into a 401(k) earning 9% a year will have $250,000 by age 70.
By Hilary Smith
If the threat of cancer can't convince you to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.
The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance and lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits. And now, being a smoker can not only mean you don't get hired -- you can get fired, too: Weyco Inc., a medical benefits administrator in Okemos, Mich., after announcing it would no longer employ smokers, fired four employees who refused to submit to a breath test.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) National Workrights Institute estimates that more than 6,000 companies refuse to hire smokers. A few examples:
Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan stopped hiring smokers for full-time positions at both its Michigan campuses;
Alaska Airlines, based in Washington State, requires a nicotine test before hiring people;
The Tacoma-Pierce County (Wash.) Health Department has applicants sign an "affidavit of nontobacco use;"
Union Pacific won’t hire smokers;
Montgomery County, Pa., tries to cutting health-care costs by refusing to hire smokers.
The cost don’t stop with your paycheck. New CDC figures assert that smokers cost the economy nearly $94 billion yearly in lost productivity. An additional $89 billion is estimated spent on public and private healthcare combined. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Taxpayers says each American household spends $596 a year in federal and state taxes due to smoking.
Some of these numbers are disputed, however, by the Bureau of National Affairs which says 95% of companies banning smoking report no financial savings and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which finds no connection between smoking and absenteeism.
For the rest of the article, go to:
[u][url]http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourhealth/P100291.asp[/url][/u]
Cheryl C.
[b]The high cost of smoking[/b]
These days, smoking can even cost you your job, not to mention the expense of cigarettes, dry cleaning and insurance. But a 40-year-old pack-a-day smoker who quits and puts the savings into a 401(k) earning 9% a year will have $250,000 by age 70.
By Hilary Smith
If the threat of cancer can't convince you to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.
The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance and lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits. And now, being a smoker can not only mean you don't get hired -- you can get fired, too: Weyco Inc., a medical benefits administrator in Okemos, Mich., after announcing it would no longer employ smokers, fired four employees who refused to submit to a breath test.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) National Workrights Institute estimates that more than 6,000 companies refuse to hire smokers. A few examples:
Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan stopped hiring smokers for full-time positions at both its Michigan campuses;
Alaska Airlines, based in Washington State, requires a nicotine test before hiring people;
The Tacoma-Pierce County (Wash.) Health Department has applicants sign an "affidavit of nontobacco use;"
Union Pacific won’t hire smokers;
Montgomery County, Pa., tries to cutting health-care costs by refusing to hire smokers.
The cost don’t stop with your paycheck. New CDC figures assert that smokers cost the economy nearly $94 billion yearly in lost productivity. An additional $89 billion is estimated spent on public and private healthcare combined. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Taxpayers says each American household spends $596 a year in federal and state taxes due to smoking.
Some of these numbers are disputed, however, by the Bureau of National Affairs which says 95% of companies banning smoking report no financial savings and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which finds no connection between smoking and absenteeism.
For the rest of the article, go to:
[u][url]http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourhealth/P100291.asp[/url][/u]
Comments
It's been an ugly affair and she knows it has done nothing but hurt her physically and financially. She spends $60-$80 every 2 weeks on cigarettes. We show her lots of love and attention as often as possible, but it sure would be nicer to visit with her without the smoke swirling around me, making me cough and how my clothes smell when I leave her apartment.
I sure do wish you had that video to share. I'd give anything to see her quit and start enjoying life. She's always been such a prisoner.
Cheryl C.
Yesterday, our Governor announced that state employees will no longer be able to smoke on any state campuses (the grounds around the buildings). I would like to see us do that too.
My brother committed suicide at age 59 after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He saw the inevitable and at the end of one long nite, he took a gun and his portable oxygen cart, went out the front door of his home to his garden shed behind the house, and shot himself. The shot woke up his wife and daughter. My mother will never recover from the thought that one of her children suffered to the point of taking his own life.
I only wish I could get the point across to our employees who smoke, especially those who are so young and have so much ahead of them.
Good luck