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Huge cost of smok smoking to North is revealed

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date16 January 2022
Publication titleSunday Sun
That works out at around £2.5 million a day and follows analysis of national data for charity Action on Smoking and Health which revealed in figures published this week the annual bill for England as a whole was £17 billion

The breakdown of costs in the North East, which includes Darlington and Middlesbrough, is based on 15.26% of adults - around 326,000 people - smoking in the region who spend around £634 million on tobacco products.

Their habit costs the NHS £124.9 million in smoking-related healthcare, made up of around 33,355 hospital admissions, 1.2m GP consultations, nearly 695,000 GP prescriptions, 413,000 practice nurse consultations and over 224,700 outpatient visits.

The social care cost is £66.9 million with smokers needing social care at a younger age than non-smokers for everyday tasks such as dressing, walking and using the toilet due to smoking.

This includes the cost of care to local authorities, care provided in the home and, for the first time, residential care costs.

Meanwhile, £684 million a year is lost in earnings and employment prospects.

With smoking causing life-limiting conditions, smokers are not only more likely to die in working age but more likely to become ill, increasing the likelihood of being out of work and reducing their average wage.

The remaining £11 million is made up of smoking-related fires and the costs of property damage, injuries and deaths.

Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: "Smoking is our biggest preventable killer and a tragedy to the tens of thousands of families who lose a loved one every year.

"These figures are a reminder of the damage smoking also does to communities, costing individuals, families, every council, every business and...

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