FACTS AND FIGURES: PERILS OF SMOKING

Today’s focus: Smoking — a habit that has destroyed countless lives, families, and futures.

"Tobacco isn’t just a smoker’s menace. Its deadly reach extends to innocent bystanders, too.”

A Shocking Historical Truth

By the mid-20th century, about 80% of men and 40% of women in the UK smoked.

The warning bells rang loudly in 1957, when medical research conclusively linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer. The news was serious enough to be debated in Parliament — yet change was painfully slow. It took years before public policy and personal choices caught up with the science.

The Perils in Numbers – Today

(Source: WHO, World Bank, CDC, India’s Ministry of Health)

🌏 Worldwide

Smokers: Over 1.3 billion people

Annual Deaths: More than 8 million (including 1.3 million from secondhand smoke)

Economic Cost: Over US $1.4 trillion every year in healthcare and productivity loss

Biggest Killers: Lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, COPD

📍 India

Smokers: ~267 million (includes cigarettes, bidis, chewing tobacco)

Annual Deaths: Over 1 million

Youth at Risk: Nearly 30% of teens aged 13–15 have tried tobacco in some form

Healthcare Burden: ₹1.8 lakh crore per year

Why These Numbers Matter

One cigarette contains over 7,000 chemicals — 70 of them are proven carcinogens.

Smoking harms every organ of the body.

Secondhand smoke kills, too — even brief exposure is dangerous.

Quitting works: Within 1 year of quitting, the risk of heart disease drops by half. In 10 years, lung cancer risk falls to nearly that of a non-smoker.

🚭 If you smoke, quit today.

Every day without tobacco is a gift to your lungs, heart, and loved ones.

If you don’t smoke — never start.

Sources: WHO Tobacco Fact Sheet 2025, GATS India, CDC Global Tobacco Atlas, UK Parliament Archives.

Grateful thanks to ChatGPT for the help in creating this blogpost, WHO for the statistics and Wikimedia Commons for the images 

> 💬 What’s your message to someone who smokes or is thinking of starting? Share your thoughts in the comments — your words might save a life.