Air date: February 6, 2011

Host: Jeremy Shere, PhD

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If you’re a smoker, or used to be one, you know quitting is not easy. And it can also be expensive. Between the nicotine gum, patches and even laser therapy, you can run up quite a tab trying to kick the habit.

But not quitting is even more costly. And not just in terms of health.

"It costs the average smoker between $1,000 - 2,000 a year to keep up an average pack a day habit."

That’s Sheryl Healton, president and CEO of the anti-tobacco American Legacy Foundation. Now, she admits that quitting can cost a lot, too -- as much as $1500 per attempt.

"And that would mean that you’re paying for two types of pharmacotherapy, one would mean nicotine replacement therapy in the form of gum or an inhaler or a patch."

Considering that it takes most people two or three attempts to really quit smoking, the costs can run up to as much as $4500, which may seem like a lot. But, Healton says, that’s still better than spending two grand on cigarettes year after year after year.

Plus, according to the CDC, the actual cost of a pack of cigarettes is more than $10.47. How do they come to that figure?

"It’s based upon the fact that the cost for treating tobacco-related illnesses in the U.S. in $100 billion every year. In addition, there’s another $100 billion in productivity-related losses associated with tobacco. It’s the most expensive health problem/behavior that we have in the U.S. bar none. It is peerless."

When you look at it that way, the cost of quitting smoking looks like a pretty smart investment.

Be sure to follow Sound Medicine on Facebook and Twitter.

I’m Jeremy Shere.

Additional Resources:

• Details about the financial sense of quitting smoking, from the LA Times.