The Cost of Tobacco Use

Two of most obvious economic costs attributed to tobacco smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke (passive smoking) are:

• Health care costs to treat tobacco-related illnesses
• The cost of lost productivity at work and in commerce due to tobacco-related diseases and premature death

There are also many “hidden” costs of tobacco use that can be more challenging to quantify, such as how the tobacco industry affects the environment, and how working on tobacco farms affects short and long-term health.

Our Research Focus

The American Cancer Society (ACS) Tobacco Control Research (TCR) team studies the massive costs of tobacco to:

• Provide evidence to nations across the world to make the investment in tobacco control a priority
• Inform the development of new tobacco control policies and offer feedback on existing policies about the most successful ways to reduce smoking across the world