Counting the cost

Tobacco-related disease costs Germany £10 billion a year, according to
the first extensive study of how much cigarette smoking costs a country in, for
example, medical care and lost earnings. Five doctors at the Eppendorf
university hospital in Hamburg will publish the analysis in the European
Respiratory Journal. A spokesperson for the European Respiratory Society
says the figure is probably an underestimate because it excludes passive smoking
and cancers other than lung cancer.