Cigarettes killed my father.

He smoked two to three packs of cigarettes each day and died of emphysema at age 76. It’s a slow, painful way to go. I remember him buying cartons of cigarettes at a time, but as a child I never thought about the money he spent on such a vile habit.

The outlay was a lot more than I thought. A new study from personal finance website WalletHub finds that the average smoker in Washington state spends more than $196,000 on cigarettes during their lifetime when factoring in “hidden costs” including health care expenditures and higher insurance premiums. Washington holds the dubious distinction of ranking No. 10 among all states in spending on cigarettes.

Tobacco use is responsible for nearly half a million deaths in the United States annually, according to the CDC. Smoking costs the country more than $600 billion every year in health care costs and lost productivity. Though smoking has declined, almost 50 million people still use tobacco products.

My father knew cigarettes were bad for him. He began smoking as a teenager and tried to quit several times, but never made it past six weeks. He was finally forced to quit a few years before he died when smoking forced him to use an oxygen tank 24/7 just so he could breathe. Even then, he owned up to the habit.

“I really enjoyed smoking,” he told me shortly before he died. “It relaxed me. It was a diversion and a hobby.”

Though cigarette smoking can damage nearly every organ in the body, his doctor told us he was completely healthy otherwise. His lungs just gave out.

The FDA this week issued a proposal that would limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. That’s a positive thing, I guess, but 60 years after the Surgeon General issued a warning about the dangers of smoking, we’re still dancing around this issue.

Simply put, smoking kills. I’ve seen it. And it’s not pretty.