New York Is Almost Dead-Last in This Health Stat

No...it's not biting your nails. The answer is tobacco. Cigarette smoking is not only unhealthy, but it's exacting a horrible financial toll on New York, according to a new release from financial services site WalletHub.

Their study examined all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and "calculated the potential monetary losses — including both the lifetime and annual cost of a cigarette pack per day, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs — brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke." The news for the Empire State is just about as bad as it gets.

The only state coming up worse than New York was Connecticut. The estimated total annual cost per smoker in New York state was a staggering $2,851,475.

That figure is about $1.5 million more than the best state. New York also didn't score very well in any of the individual categories that comprised this study.

Interestingly, many of the states where smoking issues caused the LEAST costs were in the South. Georgia was #1, followed by Missouri, North Carolina, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.