Smoking deaths cost about $92 billion in the form of lost productivity from 1997 to 2001. The economic costs of smoking are more than $167 billion, when you add an additional $75.5 billion in smoking-related medical expenditures [i] .

More than twice the number of people die from smoking each year than die from the following causes combined:

·          AIDS

·          Alcohol

·          Motor Vehicles

·          Homicides

·          Drugs

·          Suicide[ii]

Banning smoking in the workplace provides benefits to a company that are recognized as soon as the first year the ban is imposed and can still be felt as many as 10 years later. Reduced health insurance costs, gains in productivity, decreased absenteeism, and lower life insurance premiums are just some of the benefits a company can realize[iii].