The personal health habits of employees have a dollar sign attached to them. Life insurance underwriters consider smoking a major health risk. Additionally, smoking causes health-related problems that do lead to more claims on the company health insurance and may cause a steady upward trend in premiums. A few of the health concerns related to tobacco use are as follows:

• "About half of all tobacco-related deaths occur at ages 35-69 years."
• "Death rates for smokers are two to three times higher than for non-smokers at all ages. About half of all smokers who are killed by tobacco die in middle age and lose, on average, 20-25 years of life expectancy."
• "Smoking can cause sexual problems and infertility.
• "Smoking increases the risk of problem pregnancies, affecting both the mother and unborn baby.
• "On average, about 90-95% of male lung cancer deaths and 70-75% of female lung cancer deaths in developed countries are due to smoking."
• "Asthmatic children are up to 2.5 times more likely to have their condition worsened by passive (or "secondhand") smoking. In the United States alone it is estimated that 200,000 to one million asthmatic children have their condition worsened by passive smoking."
• "Diseases caused by tobacco include: cancers of the kidneys, stomach, cervix, pancreas, bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lungs, mouth, and throat, leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia, gum disease, chronic lung disease, coronary and cardiovascular diseases, and sudden infant death syndrome.
• "Smoking also reduces overall health, contributing to conditions such as hip fractures, complications from diabetes, increased wound infections following surgery, and various reproductive problems."
• "By current estimates, tobacco use causes 440,000 deaths per year and costs about $157 billion in health-related losses.

Smoking is affecting your employees' health, the health of your employees' families, and the cost of your health insurance now. A proactive approach to keeping health insurance costs low demands that you, as an employer, take an active interest in your employees' health.

Many options are available to you both in how you design your employee benefits package, as well as how you structure your work environment. For example, Cone, a public relations firm, offers their employees up to $300 for smoking cessation programs or, if an employee quits smoking on his or her own, will simply give that employee the $300 as an incentive. For taking this active interest in their employees' well being, Cone has gained widespread attention as one of the best employers in the public relations industry.

You can and should encourage your employees to quit smoking now. Findings from the Surgeon General indicate that "Quitting smoking has immediate as well as long-term benefits.The heart rate drops towards normal and circulation improves. The risk of having a heart attack or stroke or of developing lung cancer diminishes." Braden Benefit Strategies, Inc. is pleased to work with your company to set up a proactive approach to smoking cessation.