Tennessee makes list of states with lowest smoking costs

February 2, 2016 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated February 2, 2016 at 10:22 a.m.

by Staff Report

FILE - In this Saturday, March 2, 2013, photo, a cigarette burns in an ashtray at a home in Hayneville, Ala. A government study released on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, shows that even though fewer U.S. teens are smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke remains a big problem. Nearly half of nonsmoking kids in middle school and high school were exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke in 2013, and rates were even higher among smokers. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
FILE - In this Saturday, March 2, 2013, photo, a cigarette burns in an ashtray at a home in Hayneville, Ala. A government study released on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, shows that even though fewer U.S. teens are smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke remains a big problem. Nearly half of nonsmoking kids in middle school and high school were exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke in 2013, and rates were even higher among smokers. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Americans collectively spend $326 billion a year, including nearly $170 billion in direct health-care costs and more than $156 billion in lost productivity, due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke. The states with the lowest annual cost per smoker, according to WalletHub, are:

1. Louisiana, $24,160

2. Kentucky, $24,279

3. Missouri, $24,596

4. West Virginia, $24,625

5. North Carolina, $24,771

6. Georgia, $24,928

7. Tennessee, $25,078

8. South Carolina, $25,281

9. Mississippi, $25,442

10. Alabama, $25,597

Source: WalletHub, based upon calculating the cumulative cost of a cigarette pack per day over several decades, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs from smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.

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