NEW YORK — Only 4 percent of large employers offer comprehensive programs to help employees quit smoking, despite higher health costs for smokers and smoking breaks that could cost employers nine weeks of lost productivity a year, according to a 2006 study by the American Journal of Health Promotion.

About 82 percent of employers said they should take steps to help their workers quit smoking, according to a separate survey released today by the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit consortium of large employers that looks for solutions to healthcare problems.

While most large employers have banned smoking at work, 78 percent of employees at smoke-free offices said the policy is not effective in motivating them to quit.

In 1999, excess medical expenses because of smoking and smoking-related illnesses cost employers $1,850 per smoking employee, while lost productivity because of smoking and smoking-related illnesses cost employers $1,897 per smoking employee, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Smoking needs to be treated as a chronic health condition, said Ron Finch, vice president at the Business Group.

"These survey results illustrate to employers and benefit managers the need to develop a comprehensive smoking cessation benefit plan," Finch said.

The survey of 508 employers and 510 employees who smoke has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points and was sponsored by Pfizer Inc., which makes an anti-smoking prescription pill, Chantix.