WalletHub: R.I. has sixth-highest smoking costs in nation

RHODE ISLAND has the sixth-highest smoking costs in the nation, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website. / COURTESY WALLETHUB
RHODE ISLAND has the sixth-highest smoking costs in the nation, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website. / COURTESY WALLETHUB

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has the sixth-highest smoking costs in the nation, according to a WalletHub study released Tuesday in light of Tobacco-Free Awareness Week.
The Ocean State ranked 46th on the list that also included the District of Columbia, for a total per-smoker cost of more than $2 million over a lifetime, and $40,951 per year. Annually, smoking costs Rhode Islanders an average of $28,468 in financial opportunity – the amount of return a person would have earned by instead investing that money in the stock market over the same period. Over a lifetime, the lost financial opportunity amounts to $1.5 million, WalletHub said.
New York has the highest smoking costs in the nation, with $2.5 million for lifetime cost, and a $48,093 cost annually. Massachusetts has the second-highest costs at $2.3 million for lifetime, and $44,491 per year.
Louisiana has the lowest smoking costs, at $1.2 million over a lifetime, and $24,160 annually.
WalletHub ranked states by smoking costs by calculating the potential monetary losses – including the cumulative cost of a cigarette pack per day over several decades, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs – brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. For calculations, the website assumed an adult who smokes one pack of cigarettes a day starting at age 18, and a lifespan thereafter of 51 years, saying 69 is the average age at which a smoker dies.
“Smoking can not only ruin your health, but it can also burn a nasty hole through your wallet,” said the personal finance website.
The website noted “the economic and societal costs of smoking-related issues,” calling them “staggering.” Each year, the website said Americans spend $326 billion, including nearly $170 billion in direct health care costs and more than $156 billion in lost productivity, due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Citing the American Lung Association, WalletHub said tobacco use accounts for nearly half a million premature deaths in the United States each year and is the leading cause of lung cancer.

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