Smoking and Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tobacco kills nearly 6 million people each year, and more than 5 million of those deaths are attributed to direct tobacco use and more than 600,000 to indirect exposure through secondhand smoke. This number could rise up to 8 million by 2030, according to the WHO. As of 2002, approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are smoked annually around the world. The global consumption of cigarettes in 2009, divided by the world’s population at that time, results in an equivalent of 865 cigarettes smoked by each man, woman, and child on the planet in 1 year (Wipi, 2012).