08 Jun 2009
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LSE publishes first estimate of direct costs of smoking
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8 June 2009
For the first time, researchers have estimated the direct costs imposed on UK businesses by their employees who smoke. The study was undertaken by the London School of Economics, for NHS Smokefree, as part of the UK government’s efforts to tackle smoking. In particular, it was designed to help promote free NHS quit programmes for employees, in the hope that companies will be particularly sensitive to the potential productivity and economic gains in the recession.
And these gains could be substantial. It estimates that businesses lost:
- £1.1 billion from smoking-related absence due to illness (smokers take 1.77 ‘excess sickness days’ per year on average)
- £914 million from time taken on smoking breaks (smokers on more than 20 cigarettes a day each took on average almost 50 minutes of break time), and
- £133 million from fire damage (7% of fires are smoking-related – and each cause almost £31,000 in damage and lost output).
- £1.1 billion in indirect costs (for example, the dissatisfaction of non-smoking workers who see their smoking colleagues to be taking too much time on breaks).
The greatest direct economic burden of smoking to business was in London region, and the sectors most affected are administration, plant operatives and sales staff.
Source: Financial Times, 5 June 2009.