VIENNA - Tobacco smoking costs the Austrian state 430 million euros (680 million dollars) each year, researchers from Vienna's Institute for Advanced Studies said Thursday.

The figure, quantified as socio-economic costs when compared with a theoretical society where smoking is wholly prohibited, is greater than the revenue Austria raises from excise duty on tobacco.

Largely calculated through medical expenses, the estimated bill does not include the cost of cigarette-related accidents at work or on the roads, fires started by smokers or the effects of employee smoke-breaks on economic productivity.

A quarter of the headline sum is attributed to the effects of passive smoking, the report's authors added.

It said 10 percent of non-smokers were exposed to tobacco fumes daily in the home, with 70 percent of non-smoking employees of cafe-bars and restaurants taking in passive smoke at work.

Two-thirds of those spend more than five hours per day in a smoking environment.

The study ranked Austria at the bottom of a table of European countries in terms of protections offered to non-smokers, adding that legislation preventing people from smoking in public places is not rigorously applied.

According to Markus Pock, one of the authors, for Austria to balance its smoking books like other European countries, it needs to increase the price of cigarettes and offer more help to those who wish to stop smoking.

After a six-month break in negotiations, compromise legislation due to be presented in mid-May is expected to state that all pubs, cafes and restaurants have a sectioned-off area for non-smokers, unless they are protected properly or safety requirements make it impossible.

New legislation introduced at the beginning of the year requires any place of 75 square metres (807 square feet) or more to offer a non-smoking area, while smaller businesses could choose whether or not to serve smokers.

Austrians are among the biggest smokers in western and central Europe with 47 percent of adults lighting up on a regular basis.

According to health ministry estimates, between 12,000 and 14,000 deaths every year are related to smoking in a country of 8.3 million people -- or as many as one in six people, compared to one in seven in Germany or one in nine in France.

In a World Health Organisation table on anti-smoking policies in Europe, Austria ranked 26th out of 30.

gg/rt/gk

04/10/2008 15:46 GMT