CDC: Smoking deaths cost $92 billion

From CNN.com

Early deaths caused by smoking cost the nation about $92 billion in lost productivity between 1997 and 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Smoking reduces life expectancy an average of about 14 years by way of lung cancer, heart disease other illnesses, according to the CDC.

In the study, "lost productivity" meant lost wages. The CDC gave no overall estimate of the smoking-related health-care costs over the same five-year period, but estimated them at $75.5 billion in 1998 alone.