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Smoking and its Social Costs
2014-01-28
By Zhang Jiahui, the Research Department of Foreign Economic Relations, the DRC
Research Report No 205, 2013
Abstract:
It is clear that smoking does immense harm to people's health in general and increases the burden on medical services, and it results in huge financial losses because early death. Statistics have shown that the cost of the medical care for diseases caused by smoking amounted to 195.4 billion yuan, in 2011, or 8.1 percent of total health care expenditures for the year. In addition, early death caused by smoking resulted in economic losses of 59 billion yuan, putting the total cost of smoking-related problems at 254.5 billion yuan, or 0.5 percent of GDP for that same year. Smoking lead to the deaths of 581,600 people, while 3,578,400 people lost many years of potential, with the real impact on society very difficult to measure. The current effects on health and social costs are the result of smoking that started in the 1970s and 80s. But, in just the past few years, smoking among females and teenagers has been on the rise in China, with people starting at an earlier age, and smoking increasing among a largely passive population. As a result, smoking's future costs, in two or three decades will be more serious than ever.
