Environmental attorney Sanders says nicotine addiction costs Americans $193 billion per year. Time to end the addiction to cigarettes.

Cigarette smoking burns a large hole in the economy. Including direct health care expenditures ($96 billion) and productivity losses ($97 billion), the economic burden of smoking on the United States hit $193 billion per year, the Center for Disease Control said in a report released today.

The report is published this week in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.