Schoolboys do it to show how mature they are. Millionaires do it, a mile in the air in their private jets. Poverty-stricken people who can't afford any other pleasure do it. And it kills 5 million people a year.
In our quest to be cool, we allow tobacco companies to find ever funkier ways to push their product, with secret, invitation-only parties that might involve jetting across the country for the evening, or top-notch stand-up comics.
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A machine of genocide
This is the respectable face of a machine of genocide: what other word is there for an industry that kills millions of people each year?
Figures like these are shocking, but they come from credible sources: Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Queensland, writing in the medical journal Tobacco control, calculated that smoking killed nearly five million human beings in one year alone – in this case, the year 2000.
According to a breakdown of the report by the BBC, the death toll included 1 million people killed by smoking-related cardiovascular disease in the developed world and 670 000 in the developing one. Lung cancer killed 500 000 people, chronic obstructive airways disease (COPD), the collective term for inflammatory lung disease like emphysaema and bronchitis, caused 650,000 deaths.
The poor hit the hardest
The researchers found that overall, the deaths were split evenly between the developing and developed world. It can be reasoned though, that the socio-economic impact of the premature deaths on the developing world would be much higher.
A separate study in the UK found that the diseases caused by tobacco hit the country's poorest areas the hardest. A four-year health department study found that the impact of smoking on health was worst in North Liverpool, regarded as one of the most deprived areas in the UK.
And there's the rub. The kids who think it's cool light up are helping fund a system that kills people. Is there much difference between that and the system that kills people in oil-rich countries for the sake of a profit? The kids raging against the Bush administration's foreign and environmental policies at a Green Day concert tote the Winstons they were given by the promoter, and in doing so help to perpetuate a system that preys on the poor.
The BBC also quotes Amanda Sandford, spokesman for the the anti-smoking charity Ash, who said: "The extent of lung cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory disease in millions of people is a direct consequence of the ruthless marketing of a deadly drug by the multi-national tobacco companies.
Real people behind statistics
"We must not forget that behind these bald statistics are real people: mothers, fathers, friends and other loved ones who have suffered needlessly and who may have lost up to 30 years of life because of their addiction.
"If we are to stem this dreadful tide of mortality in the future, governments must implement the global tobacco control treaty without delay." Sandford was referring to a worldwide tightening up of tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and a crackdown on smuggling.
The statistics show that the poorer someone is, the more likely they are to smoke and to die as a result. And because of their poverty, smoking will hit their families harder.
How many hours in a year? How many dead smokers? Work it out. Now the lavishly-funded public relations machine of big tobacco will roll its eyes and say smokers indulge in tobacco of their own free will. Really? Ask any smoker who's tried to quit and find out how hard it is.
Then there's the rather tired refrain that "You can't stop us from advertising something that's legal to sell." Wanna bet? –
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