The Very Deadliest Habit

TNR: "As Proctor cogently explains, while tobacco killed “only about a hundred million people in the twentieth century,” we can anticipate a billion more deaths in the twenty-first century if trends continue as they have in the past. At present, tobacco kills some 6 million people a year, more than AIDS, malaria, and traffic accidents combined. Half of all life-long smokers will die from their habit. Every cigarette deletes seven minutes from a smoker’s life...

Perhaps the only optimistic portion of Proctor’s powerful account is the closing chapter on how to prevent tobacco-related deaths in the future. Given that 99 percent of such fatalities are entirely preventable, his preferred line of attack is a complete ban on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes. Proctor understands the immense political and economic obstacles facing this noble goal, but he counters potential nay-sayers with several “obvious solutions” including banning smoking in all places where people congregate, banning all cigarette marketing and advertising techniques, increasing cigarette taxes to make them less affordable, ending all tobacco subsidies, and increasing the funding and execution of tobacco prevention and cessation programs that are commensurate with the harm such products cause."