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The Cost of Smoking and Tobacco Use Directly Affect Your Business
Business is more competitive today than it has ever been. Your ability to realize
a profit may seem to be pressured from all sides. Yet, your ability to successfully
compete may be impacted by employees who smoke.
Employees who smoke cost you time and money. For example, an employee who takes
four, 10-minute smoking breaks a day will actually work ONE MONTH less per year
than an employee who does not take smoking breaks! Now, multiply one month by the
number of smoking employees that you have at your business and consider the lost
productivity that you are experiencing!
Researchers at Duke University found that the total cost of smoking, the cigarettes,
lost earnings, impact on insurance on mortality, even the impact of secondhand smoke
runs about $40 per pack for the average 24-year-old. The Centers for Disease Control
estimates 46.2 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. The economic
burden of smokers totals more than $75 billion per year in medical expenditures,
and $80 billion per year from lost productivity. The direct cost to you as an employer
for both lost time and increased medical costs are approximately $3,391 per smoker
per year. In fact, when fully considered, the costs of tobacco use to businesses
every year are staggering. Tobacco users cost businesses through higher healthcare
costs, lower productivity, higher absenteeism, a greater likelihood of becoming
disabled, higher recruiting and retraining costs related to the loss of employees
to smoking-related diseases or illnesses (including those arising from secondhand
smoke), greater risks of fires and accidents, and even potential exposure to litigation
costs and awards.
We Can Help You Minimize These Costs
At ICAN we can create a smoking cessation assistance program specifically
tailored for your employees. Whether you want to provide them with financial assistance
or simply make them aware of our treatment, we are willing to work with your business
and encourage you to take advantage of our services.
We conduct seminars at business locations to educate employees about our treatment
and the general benefits of breaking their nicotine addiction. We also offer treatment
discounts to businesses of sufficient size.
No matter what degree of involvement you decide to take, one thing is for certain
- instituting a smoking cessation program through ICAN can help
you reduce your number of smoking employees and boost your bottomline.
For business owners or human resource professionals who would like additional information
about ICAN, the International Coalition Against Nicotine, our treatment and the levels
of assistance that we can provide businesses and companies for more information call
813-868-4121, email us at
general@icanstopsmoking.org
or submit your questions via our
online submission form.
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