Smokers in Georgia, Nation, Pay a High Price for Smoking
More than 34 million Americans smoke and that includes over 15% of adults in Georgia. According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, over 10,000 Georgians die from smoking-related diseases each year.
The DPH states smoking costs $3.2 billion in lost productivity in Georgia and nearly 2 billion dollars in annual health care costs in the state.
According to the American Lung Association, smoking costs the nation more than $600 billion annually and tobacco use counts for nearly half a million deaths in the U.S. each year.
We spoke with Dr. Jacob Sands, an oncologist and volunteer spokesperson with the American Lung Association and Jill Gonzalez, an analyst with the personal finance website WalletHub, about the true costs of smoking.