Economic Impact on Business

The costs of smoking are not confined to premature death or ill health. There are also economic costs borne by the individual smoker, industry and society at large.

Smoking impacts on employers in terms of lost productivity associated with, for example, sickness absence and smoking breaks. There are a number of relevant research studies which have generated estimates for the extent of lost productivity. One rather conservative estimate for “excess” sickness absence among smokers is 0.9 days per annum. Time spent by smoking employees in smoking breaks has been estimated at 2.5 hours per week. Based on these statistics and taking into account differing wage rates, estimated costs to employers in terms of lost productivity may lie between £700 and £1,000 per smoking employee per year.

Small businesses employ about 44% of the workforce in the UK with a slightly higher proportion in the East Midlands . In a typical small business with 25 employees, six or seven employees are likely to smoke. Based on the above estimates the annual loss of productivity will fall within the range of £4,000 - £7,000.

Employees that smoke can cost the business thousands.

Other costs of smoking which fall upon employers include: Increased costs of absenteeism Legal costs of failing to protect employees in the workplace Employee deaths and early retirements due to ill health Costs of fire damage to equipment and machinery 9 about 12% of all accidental fires in the workplace are caused by smoking at a cost of over £50 million in the UK annually ) Additional ‘non-quantifiable’ costs including a negative image of the organisation.