Current estimates are that over 1 billion people in the world smoke. (In other words, approximately one in three adults on the planet smokes.) The majority of these smokers reside in countries on the low end to the middle of the socioeconomic spectrum. Of this majority, about 80 percent live in low- and middle-income countries. The total number of smokers worldwide is expected to keep increasing.

But are things in the USA any better? Not really, as you can see for yourself in the figures of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics

In the United States, an estimated 25.6 million men (25.2 percent) and 22.6 million women (20.7 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. The latest estimates for persons age 18 and older show...

·         Among whites, 25.1 percent of men and 21.7 percent of women smoke

·         Among black or African Americans, 27.6 percent of men and 18.0 percent of women smoke

·         Among Hispanics/Latinos, 23.2 percent of men and 12.5 percent of women smoke

·         Among Asians (only), 21.3 percent of men and 6.9 percent of women smoke
 

·         Among American Indians/Alaska Natives (only), 32.0 percent of men and 36.9 percent of women smoke
 

·         Studies show that smoking prevalence is higher among those with 9-11 years of education (35.4 percent) compared with those with more than 16 years of education (11.6 percent). It's highest among persons living below the poverty level (33.3 percent).

And These Figures Spell Death...

• One out of every five deaths is caused by tobacco
  
  
• An average of 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco
  
  
• Tobacco to blame for many serious pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases
   
• Tobacco and nicotine are some of the most potent carcinogens and are to blame for a majority of all cancers of the lung, trachea, bronchus, larynx, and esophagus
  
  
• Tobacco use also produces cancers in the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix
  
  
• Impotency is sometimes to blame from addiction to nicotine because of its ability to reduce blood flow
  
  
• Smoking is an important risk factor for respiratory illnesses, causing 85,000 deaths per year from pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia
   
• Children and adolescents who are active smokers will have increasingly severe respiratory illness, as they grow older
  
  
• Smoking during pregnancy causes about 5-6% of prenatal deaths, 17-26% of low-birth-weight births, and 7-10% of pre-term deliveries, and it increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal growth retardation
  
  
• Cigarettes are responsible for about 25% of deaths from residential fires, causing nearly 1,000 fire-related deaths and 3,300 injuries each year