The high cost of smoking

The high cost of smoking.

Calvin Wood gave in to peer pressure at age 18 and lit up a cigarette. Now 42, Wood smokes a pack a day (in monetary terms, about $3,600 worth a year) and wants to kick the habit. He quit cold turkey for six months in 1996, the year his daughter was born. When he started smoking again (Players Light are his 'poison') he lit up even more regularly than before. View Larger Image One year after quitting, your risk of heart disease will be about half of what it would have been if you'd continued to smoke. Daily News Email to a friend Printer friendly Font: "I went out drinking with a bunch of friends and they bet me I couldn't have one (cigarette) and just quit," said Wood. "And then I couldn't."