Smoke free Suffolk

Smoking has a cost not just to us personally but to our families and communities too. From the cost to the NHS to the environmental impact there are so many more reasons to quit.

Cost to Suffolk – £747.2 million

14% of Suffolk’s population who smoke spend an estimated £266.7 million on tobacco a year, both legal and illicit (illegal). Revenue from cigarette and hand-rolled tobacco only brings in about £171.9 million.

So how do the costs break down?

£436.6 million on lost productivity (earnings and employment)
£274.4 million on social care
£32 million on healthcare
£4.1 million on fires
The value of life lost because of premature death due to smoking is £439.7 million.



Productivity

Smoking negatively affects earnings and employment prospects. The cumulative impact amounts to productivity losses.

125.5M smoking-related loss of earnings
76.4m smoking-related unemployment
27.3m smoking-related early deaths
207.4m reduced GVA due to expenditure on tobacco.



Healthcare - NHS

These costs are a result of smoking-related hospital admissions and the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses in primary care services such as GPs.



Social Care

Many current and former smokers require care in later life as a result of smoking-related illness. The cost of domiciliary care is £11.8m, unmet care needs £98.5m, cost of residential care £10.7m and cost of informal care by family and friends £153.4m



Fire Costs

Smoking materials are a major contributor to accidental fires. About 23 smoking-related fires are attended by Fire and Rescue Services each year. The cost of death is £1.3m, cost of injuries £1.6m, property damage £1.2m and fire and rescue costs of £100k

Cost to the country

ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) published data in January 2022, showing that smoking cost society £17.04 billion a year, and that’s just for England.

Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to become ill while of working age. They are more likely to be out of work and have lower wages. Smokers are more likely to die while still of working age, impacting the economy. Together these add up to £13.2bn a year.

Smokers need health and social care at a younger age. The costs to the NHS are 2.4bn with a further 1.2bn in social care costs. And this is with most of the support for carers coming from friends and family, saving the country £14bn a year.

Smoking-related fires and fire-related deaths and damage cost a further £280 million.

The tax paid on cigarettes totals around £10 billion a year in England, which doesn’t cover the costs incurred.

The only winners are the tobacco companies.

Cost to Employers

In 2022 the financial cost of smoking on London alone reached an astonishing £3 billion. This huge amount was made up of costs on the NHS, social care, fire-related incidents, and the staggering loss of productivity caused by illness and early death.

Smoking has a massive impact on people and can place an invisible, often masked strain on your workforce. If you are an employer your workforce is your lifeblood and smoking-related illness and absenteeism are impacting your bottom line.

Cigarette breaks cost UK businesses £8.4 billion a year in lost productivity based on 4 10-minute cigarette breaks. That’s £1815 a year for each full-time member of staff.
1 in 5 of the workforce who smoke take 3.9 smoking breaks each lasting 9.8 minutes.
Smoking is linked to higher rates of both short and long-term absences. Smokers are 33% more likely to miss work than non-smokers.
Smokers are more likely to die while they are still of working age creating a further loss to the economy and burden on employers.
Putting the £8.4 billion in context – that’s 0.5% of the countries entire GDP!

Environmental Cost of Smoking

A 20-a-day habit over 50 years would create…

A total carbon footprint of 5.1t CO2 equivalent emissions, which to offset, would require 132 tree seedlings planted and grown for 10 years.

A water footprint of 1,355 m3 is equivalent to almost 62 years’ water supply for any three people’s basic needs.

Total fossil fuel depletion of 1.3-tonne oil equivalent is comparable to the electricity use of an average household in India for almost 15 years.



Every year

The six trillion cigarettes manufactured each year globally take up some 5.3 million hectares of land and require more than 22 billion tonnes of water.
The cigarettes were manufactured in nearly 500 factories across 125 countries. The cultivation of 32.4 million tonnes (Mt) of green tobacco, used for the production of 6.48 million tonnes of dry tobacco in the six trillion cigarettes manufactured worldwide in 2014.
All of this produced 25 megatons of solid waste, 55 megatons of wastewater and almost 84 megatons of CO2 emissions to climate change – approximately 0.2% of the global total.

Tobacco curing

Tobacco leaves have to be dried. Sun and air can take several months. Many farmers ‘flue’ cure their tobacco. This means hanging the leaves and heating the air. It is estimated that 50 million trees are cut down every year for this purpose.

This process is highly energy intensive with the use of coal or wood contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation – this accounts for more carbon emissions than all other stages combined, releasing 45 million tonnes CO2 equivalent every year.

Tobacco cultivation

Tobacco farming takes place across 125 countries, primarily in Brazil, India, and China.
Tobacco companies have resultantly shifted 90% of their cultivation and production to lower-income countries, to cut costs and circumvent regulations.
Tobacco companies use large quantities of chemicals and pesticides to combat problems of growing monocrops – risking not only the environment but also the workers employed by them.
Every year between 1-5 million pesticide poisonings are reported every year – resulting in 11, 000 deaths.

An estimated 1.5 billion hectares of forest have been lost worldwide since the 1970’s for tobacco cultivation – contributing to up to 20% of annual greenhouse gas increases.

Land cleared for cultivation has a limited life span for tobacco production.

Tobacco production endangers food security – taking up land that would otherwise be used for food.
In addition to the risks of pesticides, tobacco growers are susceptible to ‘green tobacco sickness’. This illness is caused by the absorption of nicotine through the skin from contact with wet tobacco leaves.
Children make up a significant proportion of the tobacco farming workforce. ‘Green tobacco sickness’ causes them significant harm.

Processing, packaging, and manufacturing

The resources used in the production of non-tobacco elements such as filters, cigarette paper and packaging each pose their own environmental impact.

Nearly 1 million tonne of filters and about 2.15 million tonne of packaging are estimated to be used by the industry every year.

Over the past two decades cigarette filters have been recorded as the most abundant litter item worldwide.

Conventional filters are made from cellulose acetate – they only use an average of 38% of mass in two years of decomposition and they contain multiple toxic substances which infiltrate the environment.

The energy and logistics of transporting and manufacturing cigarettes are by far one of the most harmful aspects of cigarette production for the environment.

Need help to stop smoking? Find support local to you

Feel Good Suffolk Advisors are there to offer support and advice on stopping smoking, healthy weight and being more active. They will tell you about the services available, tell you about what other options there are in your local area and community and guide you through on-line self-help.

They can also advise you on the eligibility criteria for more intensive levels of support around managing a healthy weight, stopping smoking and being more active.

Find support