SMOKING: Gosh, smoking cigarettes has become a very expensive habit.

“With the economic costs of smoking totaling more than $600 billion per year, the personal-finance company WalletHub released its report on The Real Cost of Smoking by State, to help encourage the estimated 49.2 million tobacco users in the U.S. to kick this dangerous habit.

“WalletHub calculated the potential monetary losses — including the lifetime and annual costs of a pack of cigarettes per day, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs — brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.”

On a scale where 1 is the highest and 25 is average, the financial cost of smoking in Pennsylvania is spelled out as ranking 15th overall in the nation. Over a lifetime, the out-of-pocket cost per smoker is $207,787.

The financial opportunity cost over a lifetime is estimated at $3,639,771. The income loss was estimated at $657,340, ranked 23rd in the nation.

Overall, the total costs over a lifetime per smoker were estimated at $4,772,877, or per year at $99,435.

“There has been an incredible reduction in smoking over the last 50 years – rates of smoking have dropped by about 75%,” said Scott E. Sherman, MD, MPH, professor at NYU. “This has been a huge public health success story. Most of that drop has been due to public health measures implemented by Federal, state and local authorities. The most effective measures have been taxes, clean indoor air laws (not allowing smoking in places like restaurants and workplaces) and limiting teenagers’ access to cigarettes. In addition, advertising campaigns have helped shift attitudes about smoking, which is one of the reasons why rates of smoking cigarettes among high school students are the lowest they have been in decades.”