The average Aussie smoker spends a whopping 300,000 dollars in his or her lifetime on cigarettes.
Melbourne, May 8 : The average Aussie smoker spends a whopping 300,000 dollars in his or her lifetime on cigarettes.
And, smoking an average 20 cigs a day means that a smoker will have puffed his way through 400,000 cigarettes by the age of 65, and 500,000 cigarettes by the time he dies.
Dr Ross Philpot, a South Australian infectious disease physician, who came up with the new figures, said that the doctors need to remind patients of this 'sobering' figure to help them kick the butt.
He added that the physical consequences of the habit should also illustrate to help the smoker quit.
"In my three decades of experience, I have noted that an accumulated intake of a quarter of a million cigarettes usually results in at least some cough, breathlessness and wheeze and decreased exercise tolerance," The Age.com.au quoted him, as stating in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.
"Half a million cigarettes generally causes chronic smoker's bronchitis, with or without some degree of emphysema .. while three-quarters of a million cigarettes makes cancer a distinct possibility," he added.
Dr Philpot suggested that informing smokers about these statistics was a simple and effective method doctors could use to coerce patients into giving up the habit.
ANI