Health problems from smoking cost £1 million daily

HEALTH problems caused by smoking cost the NHS more than £1 million a day, a Swansea-based study out today says.

A report commissioned by the anti-smoking charity Ash and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) says an estimated £386million was spent tackling smoking-related diseases in 2007/08.

The bill is more than enough to pay for the UK's swine flu vaccinations.

Smoking accounted for 22 per cent of the cost of adult hospital admissions and more than £43million worth of GP consultations, according to the report's author, Professor Ceri Phillips of Swansea University.

The charities said nearly a quarter of Welsh adults smoke. The habit claims the lives of 6,000 people in Wales every year.

ASH Wales chief Tanya Buchanan said smoking was also depriving the economy of millions through sickness absence.

She said: "These figures demonstrate the huge costs of smoking to the NHS in Wales.

"However, what this report doesn't include is the huge cost to the economy of Wales, for example more than £23million from lost productivity through smoking-related sickness absences and £6 million from smoking-related fires.

"Not to mention the emotional cost of family members seeing their loved ones suffer daily from smoking-related illnesses.

"In Wales we need to move our focus towards a more proactive health service, promoting and protecting people's health throughout their lives."

The Assembly was the first legislature in the UK to vote for a ban on smoking in public places, but it had to wait for legislation to go through Parliament before it could introduce Wales's smoking ban in 2007.

BHF Cymru public affairs manager Delyth Lloyd called on the Assembly Government to introduce a tobacco control strategy.

She said: "The younger a smoker starts, the harder it is for them to quit therefore it is vital that we prevent young people from starting to smoke in the first instance and ensure that the very best support, advice and treatment is available to those who want to quit."