Smoking costs too much...

Do smokers know something the rest of us don’t?

While there is a tidal wave of scientific evidence warning about the dangers of smoking, an astonishing number of people still persist with the harmful habit.

You’d be hard pressed to find any positive health benefits of smoking, but there are some out there.

Studies suggest smokers are slimmer than most and there’s even evidence that smoking can, in some circumstances, help prevent the onset of various dementias.

That said, you won’t find any doctors advocating the killer weed as an aid to healthy living. The marginal benefits are heavily outweighed by the devastating drawbacks.

The shadow of the Grim Reaper hanging over smokers is just part of the story.

As we reveal today, the financial cost of smoking is proving a burden to the rest of society.

Data published ahead of World No Tobacco Day calculates that smoking costs the North East £613.8million a year!

In Sunderland we are losing £71.8million to the burden placed on healthcare, productivity, social care, house fires and littering. It is, as Ailsa Rutter, of the anti-smoking group Fresh tells us today, a major driver of poverty.

Which is odd, given that the tobacco business, despite huge restrictions placed on it by the Government, is hugely profitable.

While smoking costs us tens of millions, the industry in the UK alone makes a collective profit of £1BILLION. It has sparked calls for the government to put pressure on tobacco companies to pay for the damage it causes.

Of course, the easiest remedy is for all to quit. Over to you smokers... or do you know something the rest of us don’t?