Smokers coughing up £1,644 a year

THE average smoker spends a staggering 13 days 4 hours and 20 minutes smoking in a year, says a new report.

Getting through 13 cigarettes a day for four minutes at a time, smokers spend more than 316 hours with a fag between their lips.

The research, commissioned by the Department of Health, shows that during this time smokers could have watched 208 football matches.

The average smoker gets through 4,745 cigs a year which, if laid end to end, would be 1,107ft long – 97ft more than Europe’s tallest building, the London Shard.

And they are also setting light to an incredible £1,644 every year – more than the cost of two season tickets at Manchester United.