--- title: Smoking Deaths Worldwide: Tobacco Lung Cancer Facts To Know description: If you're still not concerned about the public health effects of smoking, here are five alarming tobacco facts that may change your mind. canonical: https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T21:03:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:57.453Z article:section: Health og:title: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Tobacco og:description: If you're still not concerned about the public health effects of smoking, here are five alarming tobacco facts that may change your mind. og:url: https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fbd6df718e0789/69878464e20a8710b2a85a85/cigarette-pack-smoking-kills.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: cigarette pack smoking kills og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Tobacco twitter:description: If you're still not concerned about the public health effects of smoking, here are five alarming tobacco facts that may change your mind. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fbd6df718e0789/69878464e20a8710b2a85a85/cigarette-pack-smoking-kills.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Things You Didn't Know About Tobacco > Sponsored content. 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"More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette" is just one of the phrases we don't hear anymore - here's a quick look at America's complicated relationship with the addictive habit._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 19, 2015 9:03 PM UTC  Cigarettes tobacco Cigarettes tobaccoGetty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 19, 2015 9:03 PM UTC Despite killing 6 million people each year, tobacco use is still rampant worldwide, according to the new edition of the [Tobacco Atlas](http://3pk43x313ggr4cy0lh3tctjh.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TA5%5F2015%5FWEB.pdf), a report from the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation. Drawn from the report, here are five startling tobacco facts worth knowing. **Smokers lit up more than 5.8 trillion cigarettes in 2014.** People have consistently been smoking fewer and fewer cigarettes for the last several decades in Europe and the Americas, but that improvement has been offset by growth of cigarette consumption in China. The average adult there smoked more than 2,000 cigarettes in 2014. **Tobacco kills at least half of its users.** People tend to think that lung cancer is responsible for tobacco-related deaths. It’s true: the disease kills more than a million smokers around the world every year. But lung cancer is just one of many tobacco-related ailments that can kill. Stroke, heart attack, bronchitis and emphysema are other top killers. And even if a smoker doesn’t get a disease caused by tobacco, smoking reduces the chances of surviving other conditions. **The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars annually promoting itself.** From charitable donations to lobbying, the tobacco industry spends heavily to win over users and supporters. In the United States, for instance, the tobacco industry has more than 150 lobbyists in Washington at an annual cost of more than $26 million, the report notes, and companies also donate millions to charities to improve their public image. But all of that pales in comparison to the money spent on traditional marketing campaigns, like billboards and magazine advertisements. The tobacco industry spends $900,000 every hour on advertising in the U.S., the report says—so if you spend five minutes reading this article, the tobacco industry will have spent $75,000 on marketing. **Cigarette manufacturers target the already vulnerable.** As people in developed nations like the U.S. increasingly realize the risks of smoking, the tobacco industry has invested resources in getting people in the developing world to adopt the habit. Faced with less regulation, the report says, marketing feeds the perception that smoking is not only “cool” but also provides health benefits. Smokers often ignore essentials to pay for their cigarette habit, finds the report. In high-income countries like Canada and France, nearly a third of male smokers are spending money on cigarettes and skimping on essentials like food. Nearly three-quarters of male smokers do the same in middle-income countries like Brazil and Thailand. **Regulation and public awareness campaigns have worked.** The report found some good news, too: a combination of regulation and public awareness can decrease the prevalence of smoking. Cigarette tax increases, for example, have been shown to improve the odds that smokers will quit and discourage people from picking up the practice in the first place. Other efforts like public smoking bans and restrictions on advertising have also had success, the authors say. In New York City, where these practices have been adopted, the prevalence of smoking has declined by a third. _Read next:_ [_Watch John Oliver Burn Big Tobacco_](http://time.com/3710949/john-oliver-tobacco/?iid=time%5Freadnext) ### 5 Horrible Habits You Need to Stop Right Now  Do Not Email First Thing in the Morning or Last Thing at Night “The former scrambles your priorities and all your plans for the day and the latter just gives you insomnia,” says Ferriss, who insists “email can wait until 10am” or after you check off at least one substantive to-do list item. Chris Pecoraro—Getty Images  Do Not Agree to Meetings or Calls With No Clear Agenda or End Time “If the desired outcome is defined clearly… and there’s an agenda listing topics–questions to cover–no meeting or call should last more than 30 minutes,” claims Ferriss, so “request them in advance so you can ‘best prepare and make good use of our time together.'” Sam Edwards—Getty Images/Caiaimage  Do Not Check Email Constantly Batch it and check it only periodically at set times (Ferriss goes for twice a day). Your inbox is analogous to a cocaine pellet dispenser, says Ferriss. Don’t be an addict. Tools like strategic use of the auto responder and Boomerang can help. Jetta Productions—Getty Images  Do Not Carry a Digital Leash 24/7 At least one day a week leave you smartphone somewhere where you can’t get easy access to it. If you’re gasping, you’re probably the type of person that most needs to do kick this particular habit. by nacoki ( MEDIA ARC )—Getty Images/Flickr RF  Do Not Let People Ramble Sounds harsh, but it’s necessary, Ferriss believes. “Small talk takes up big time,” he says, so when people start to tell you about their weekends, cut them off politely with something like “I’m in the middle of something, but what’s up?” But be aware, not everyone agrees with this one (and certainly not in every situation), and you may want to pay particularly close attention to norms around chit chat when traveling internationally. Reza Estakhrian—Getty Images [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/"},"headline":"5 Things You Didn't Know About Tobacco","datePublished":"2015-03-19T21:03:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:40:57.453Z","description":"Smokers lit up more than 5.8 trillion cigarettes in 2014","url":"https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/","keywords":["Smoking","Public Health","Addiction","lung cancer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fbd6df718e0789/69878464e20a8710b2a85a85/cigarette-pack-smoking-kills.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5fbd6df718e0789/69878464e20a8710b2a85a85/cigarette-pack-smoking-kills.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"cigarette pack smoking kills","caption":"cigarette pack smoking kills","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/smoking/","name":"Smoking"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/","name":"5 Things You Didn't Know About Tobacco"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Up in Smoke: The Rise and Fall of Big Tobacco","description":"\"More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette\" is just one of the phrases we don't hear anymore - here's a quick look at America's complicated relationship with the addictive habit.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WPuXPUG8/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-16T14:34:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WPuXPUG8.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/","duration":"PT1M37S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3750960/alarming-tobacco-facts/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```