The new Minnesota Cost of Smoking Report, put out by Blue Cross Blue Shield, is revealing impacts that smoking had on the state of Minnesota.

According to the report:

• There have been 6,530 deaths that have been attributed to smoking in Minnesota in 2021.
• $4.7 billion dollars of healthcare costs are directly caused by smoking.
• $9.4 billion dollars is the the estimated economic cost of smoking…

Blue Cross Blue Shield says the number of smoking deaths is on the rise, but the prevalence of smoking is low.

Bukata Hayes explains how that happens, “We still have to deal with the folks that have been smoking for a long time. And when those illnesses, when those impacts show up in the system, there’s this time period from when you begin smoking to when those negative effects take place. And then that’s what could be shown in the data.”

The Cost of Smoking report only takes in data from people smoking tobacco products. So what about vaping or smoking marijuana?

When it comes to vaping, local ER Physician Dr. Dylan says, “Cigarettes burn a lot more chemicals that are contained in the process of smoking, it’s combusted goes into our blood stream. But some of the most dangerous chemicals like nicotine… people consume higher volumes of it in vaping.”

And for smoking marijuana, Dr. Dylan says, “any type of smoked substance, burning that you are inhaling is bad for your lungs.”

You can check put the full report here.