One in Five Deaths caused by smoking, study reveals
Jump to full article: Environmental Health News (The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health-CIEH) (uk), 2009-06-19
Intro: The impact on health from smokingrelated diseases and cost to the public purse is far higher than official figures suggest, according to new research.
A study by Oxford University’s Department of Public Health found that the cost of smoking to the NHS in 2005-06 was £5.2bn, nearly four times higher than government figures suggest. The most recent estimates put the figure at £1.4bn to £1.7bn.
Dr Steven Allender, who led the study, said even this upward revision is likely to be an under-estimate as it did not take into account indirect costs such as informal care and the impact of passive smoking.
The study also found that about 110,000 people in the UK died as a direct result of smoking in 2005, an increase of 5,000 over the previous estimate.
This means that nearly one in five of all deaths in the country are due to smoking, accounting for more than 27 per cent of deaths among men and nearly 11 per cent among women.
The research has prompted renewed calls for tougher sanctions on the sale and advertising of tobacco products.
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