Health Library Interactive Tool: How Much Is Smoking Costing You?From Healthwise

Click here to find out how much smoking is costing you.

This interactive tool calculates how much money you have spent on cigarettes in the past or how much you will spend on them in the future. When computing future costs, this calculator does not take into account inflation or the rising cost of cigarettes or the taxes on them. The actual amount you spend will be higher.

Although you may be surprised at how much you spend on cigarettes over a period of time, smoking costs even more when you consider illnesses caused by smoking. The more cigarettes you smoke and the longer you smoke, the more costs will add up from smoking-related medical problems such as lung cancer, heart disease, or emphysema.

Perhaps most importantly, this tool can't calculate the costs that aren't measured in dollars. Smoking will eventually cost you time and will take a toll on your quality of life, and it will likely have an impact on the people you care about.

Health tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.

	Interactive tools are designed to help people determine health risks, ideal weight, target heart rate, and more.
	Cost of smoking

Quitting smoking can be difficult, especially if you have been smoking for a long time. It may take several tries before you succeed, but even if you have a strong addiction, it is still possible to quit. And even if you have smoked for many years, quitting smoking now can still increase your life span and improve the quality of your life.

The best way to stop smoking is to get help and to follow a plan. Medicine that reduces cravings for nicotine, such as bupropion (Zyban), varenicline (Chantix), or nicotine chewing gum, may also be helpful. For more information about how you can quit smoking, see the topic Quitting Tobacco Use.

Author:	Debby Golonka, MPH Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS	Last Updated: October 11, 2007
Medical Review:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine John Hughes, MD - Psychiatry
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