Smoking costs the world economy a staggering £1.1 TRILLION

Treating smokers for their illnesses costs a staggering £1.1 trillion ($1.4tn) each year, a new study has warned. 

The research – the first of its kind – shows that tobacco users receiving healthcare accounts for almost 2 per cent of the world’s spending.

Known to increase the risk of heart disease and 17 forms of cancer, the cost of smoking was greatest in low and middle-income countries.

These bared two fifths of the global economic cost, while Brazil, Russia, India and China accounted for a quarter of it, figures suggested.  

Experts say the findings offer a reality-check for health campaigners, proving the significant burden smoking has on the economy.  

Expensive habit: Brazil, Russia, India and China create the biggest smoking-related health bills

More than 152 countries representing 97 per cent of the world’s smokers were included in the data from the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Mark Goodchild of the WHO said: ‘The detrimental impact of smoking on health has been widely documented since the 1960s.

‘Numerous studies have also quantified the economic cost that smoking imposes on society. 

‘However, these studies have mostly been in high income countries, with limited documentation from developing countries.

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‘The aim of this paper is to measure the economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases in countries throughout the world, including in low and middle-income settings.’ 

The research, published in Tobacco Control, used the ‘cost of illness’ approach, which was first devised in 1960.

This divides the economic impact of an illness into direct costs, such as hospital admissions and treatment, and indirect costs representing the value of productivity lost to death and disability in current and future years, for a given year.

Extensive: The study included data from 152 countries – 97 per cent of the world’s smokers

Fatal mistake: It is estimated in 2012 diseases caused by smoking accounted for 12 per cent or 2.1 million of all deaths

It is estimated in 2012 diseases caused by smoking accounted for 12 per cent or 2.1 million of all deaths among working age adults aged 30 to 69 with the highest proportion in Europe and the Americas.

In Eastern Europe alone, the calculations indicated that this proportion was 10 per cent of the total healthcare spend. 

While the number of working years lost because of smoking related ill health added up to 26.8 million, 18 million of which were lost to death with the remainder lost to disability.

In terms of health spend attributable to smoking, this totaled $422bn (£337bn) equivalent to nearly 6 per cent of the global total, with the highest share in Europe and the Americas.

Worryingly, the cost does not include the health and economic harms caused by second hand smoke or smokeless forms of tobacco, and estimates of lost productivity applied only to those who were economically active.

Conservative: The real economic consequences are expected to be higher than reported

Second-hand smoke, the team wrote, was responsible for an estimated six million deaths per year.

But the researchers are unsure as to whether the figures have increased over a short period as studies on the specific topic are infrequent. 

Mr Goodchild added: ‘Smoking imposes a heavy economic burden throughout the world, particularly in Europe and North America where the tobacco epidemic is most advanced.

‘These findings highlight the urgent need for all countries to implement comprehensive tobacco control measures to address these economic costs, while also helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the member states.’

Curbing the habit globally would go a long way towards achieving one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – to cut premature deaths from non-infectious diseases by a third by 2030.

Tobacco use is ‘one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced,’ according to the WHO, which says taxes are the most cost-effective deterrent.

Yet ‘only 33 countries, with 10 percent of the world’s population, have introduced taxes on tobacco products so that more than 75 percent of the retail price is tax,’ the WHO said on its website.

Tobacco tax revenues are on average 269 times higher than spending on tobacco control, based on available data, it said.