Why move to a smoke free work environment?

Smoking is responsible for a significant percentage of health care spending and disability in the United States.

• Cigarette smoking is now responsible for twenty percent of all deaths in the United States annually.

• Cigarette smoking accounts for eight percent of all health- care spending in the United States.

• People who smoke represent eighteen percent of the entire U.S. population.

• People who smoke tend to incur more medical costs, to see physicians more often in the outpatient setting, and to be admitted to the hospital more often and for longer periods than non-smokers.

• Health care costs for people who smoke are 21% higher and drug costs are 28% higher than non-smokers.

• People who smoke are more likely to be absent from work than non-smokers, and their illnesses last longer.

• The CDC calculated the cost to the nation in terms of lost worker productivity and health care costs for a pack of cigarettes. For every pack sold in the US it costs $3.45 per pack in health care costs and $3.73 per pack in terms of lost productivity putting the total at $7.18.