Economics
- In 2001/02 it was estimated that 168,115 hospital bed days in Queensland were directly attributed to smoking-related conditions; at a cost of $137.8 million.
- The total smoking-related financial burden on the Queensland community is estimated at $2.2 billion annually (this includes health care costs, loss of productivity through sickness and absenteeism, and the impact of premature death).
- The estimated economic costs of tobacco use to the Australian community are $21 billion per year.
- The gross costs in Australia of treating the proportion of major diseases attributable to smoking were estimated in a recent study to have totalled around $2.25 billion in 1998-99. This is almost equivalent to the entire annual cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 1997-98.
- These estimates are based only on those conditions for which scientists have calculated the tobacco-related risk. The study did not attempt to quantify the cost of treating illness and disability for the many other conditions that are known to be adversely affected by smoking – highly prevalent and costly diseases such as diabetes and upper respiratory tract infections.
- Smokers who die early or become incapacitated due to smoking no longer contribute to the unpaid economy, which greatly increases costs and time spent by other individuals on tasks such as housework, home repairs and caring for children, the elderly, the mentally ill and physically and mentally disabled. The value of unpaid contributions not made by smokers who die early was estimated to total at least $6.8 billion in 1998-99.
This page last updated:
June 2006
Review date: September 2006
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