Smoking is expensive, and not just for smokers: The costs associated with the habit in subsidized housing is nearly half a billion dollars annually.
Nearly $497 million could be saved every year if smoking were universally banned in subsidized and public housing, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That policy — already in effect in some subsidized housing — would yield huge annual savings to taxpayers, employers, the federal government, state governments and others.
The benefit would be the largest in New York, where an annual $125 million would be saved. (The state is home to about 15 percent of all subsidized-housing residents.) Wyoming, with its small general population, would see the smallest amount saved: $580,000 a year.
According to the CDC, the groups most likely to benefit from the health care savings are primarily taxpayers, employers and state or federal governments. Renovation and fire cost savings would generally go to property owners or housing authorities and insurance carriers. In 41 states, health care costs from secondhand-smoke inhalation represented the largest costs.
Washington Post
