To mark World Anti-smoking Day on Monday, a research team led by Professor Jee Sun-ha of Public Health Graduate School of Yonsei University released a study on the socioeconomic damages and losses caused by smoking.

The team's report was released at an anti-smoking forum held by the Korean Association of Smoking and Health. The research team and the National Health Insurance Corporation jointly conducted a 13-year study of 1,178,138 people including civil servants, private school personnel and their families who had medical checkups at least once between 1992 and 1995.

According to Professor Jee, the damages because of smoking totaled W8.9 trillion in 2005, of which 93.8 percent was losses from people who died early of smoking-related illnesses.

The team estimated the damages by multiplying the lost working years and the expected incomes of people who died early of smoking-related diseases like cancer. The direct medical costs including hospital charges and medical expenses amounted to W300 billion and indirect losses such as expenses for nursing and productivity loss of care takers due to hospitalization totaled W257.1 billion, according to the report.

The report said male smokers are 1.65 times more likely to die early than non-smokers. For women, the figure is 1.91 times. The most common smoking-related cancer is laryngeal cancer.

Male smokers are 6.5 times more likely and female smokers are 4.21 times more likely to die of laryngeal cancer than non-smokers. Male smokers also suffered from lung cancer, cancer of the esophagus and cancer of the bladder. For women, smoking also led to lung cancer, endometrial cancer and cancer of the uterus.

(englishnews@chosun.com )