Smoker study Smokers relieve German society by earlier death

Early death: smokers relieve the company financially
Scientists have calculated that smokers financially relieve German society. This has mainly to do with the fact that they die on average several years earlier and thus retirement pensions disappear. In addition, smokers pay hundreds of billions in tobacco tax.

High health risk from tobacco consumption
Smoke harms the health. Smokers get sick and die not only of lung cancer, ("https://www.heilpraxisnet.de/naturheilpraxis/raucher-erkranken-und-sterben-nicht-nur-an-lungenkrebs-2015042232678") but also many other diseases such as heart Circulatory diseases, atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD (smoker's lung). Tobacco consumption is not only a health, but also financial burden on society.

Smokers die much earlier and thus relieve the pension funds. Image: Photographee.eu - fotolia

In a previous study by scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München, it was found that the health costs of smoking are higher than assumed ("https://www.heilpraxisnet.de/naturheilpraxis/krankheitskosten-beim-rauchen-hoeher-alsan-ommenommen-9017733.php ") were. It included not only the costs of medical care but also the loss of work. However, a new study now concludes that smokers financially relieve society.

Smokers die five years earlier
The study by Professor Berthold Wigger and his colleague Florian Steidl from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) comes to the conclusion that smokers in Germany relieve social funds and taxpayers in this country under the line for high billions. As the news agency dpa reports, the study authors cite as the main reason the fact that smokers die about five years earlier than non-smokers and accordingly no longer receive pensions and pensions. According to her, this effect is far more financially significant than additional costs due to additional medical treatment or early retirement of smokers from the working life.

Hundreds of billions of tobacco tax revenues
"We examined the net cost of smoking in Germany for the first time," Wigger told the German Press Agency. It was only about the costs to be borne by the general public. The researchers chose a novel approach for their investigation. Reportedly, in model calculations, they battled a theoretical non-smoking and real society of 2011 over a life cycle of 89 years, and calculated what additional costs and savings came to society. From this they concluded that real society is 36.4 billion euros cheaper for everyone. In it smoke according to the information, 30 percent of men and 21 percent of women.

In addition, all smokers in their lifetime would pay 376 billion euros in tobacco taxes, which would not be taken without tobacco products. "Tobacco taxes are difficult to justify, considering the net external costs," said Wigger. However, this will not detract from the high popularity of tobacco taxes by the tax authorities.

Researchers come to different conclusions
In other investigations, however, researchers came to completely different conclusions. Thus, the annual costs of smoking in Germany are sometimes estimated at 30 to 35 billion euros and sometimes even up to 90 billion euros. This would be offset only revenue of 14 billion euros from the tobacco tax. "These are gross bills, we have net effects," said Wigger. For example, if a smoker dies of lung cancer at the age of 70, he will not be able to die from colorectal cancer at the age of 80. In the end, the mortality is 100 percent and the nonsmokers die. Therefore, the net cost was limited. (Ad)