Which costs the NHS the most in time and treatment, smoking cigarettes or Alcohol consumption.?
According to the site below, alcohol misuse among all age groups is estimated to cost the NHS £1.7billion a year, and the cost to the NHS of smoking-related disease is about £1.5 billion per year. As for the cost in time, figures for 2005 show that 35,400 people were admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of alcoholic liver disease, plus more than 126,000 received in-patient care for mental health problems linked to excess drinking, and a further 21,700 people were admitted to hospital with alcoholic poisoning as a result of binge-drinking. With regard to smoking, over 120,000 people die each year in the UK from smoking-related diseases, and each of those will probably have received a lot of hospitalisation and care before they died, not to mention all those that receive care and attention due to chronic illnesses related to smoking. When we consider the problems that alcohol brings, however, we must also remember the trauma often suffered by the immediate families of those with drink p
