Revealed: The Global Cost of Smoking

Smoking and its related harms cost the world more than $1 trillion and claim the lives of around 6 million people each year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Cancer Institute.

$1 trillion exceeds the global tax revenue accumulated from tobacco sales. This figure is estimated to be around $270 billion and, of that sum, less than $1 billion is invested in tobacco control.

Experts suggest that much of the strongest resistance to policies geared towards controlling supplies have come from governments who fear that tightening restrictions on tobacco products will harm the economy. However, a commentator from the WHO’s Tobacco Control Economics Unit points out that tobacco industries “will scare you that tobacco control measures are anti-poor when in fact [there’s] overwhelming evidence [suggesting] the opposite [is true].”

Click here to read the full story on The Washington Post’s website.