Cigarette smoking, for countless individuals around the world is one of the hardest habits to break. It is a dangerous addiction that costs billions of dollars every year, not only in the purchases that are made to buy cigarettes, but a variety of other costs as well.

• There was as much as $92 billion that was lost in annual productivity throughout the United States between the years of 1997 and 2001, which was a direct result of cigarette smoking.
• 10% of the deaths that occurred worldwide was caused from smoking cigarettes.
• There were 300,000 deaths that resulted in fires that cigarette smoking caused, and the cost involved from fires that were caused by smoking equaled $27 billion.
• During this time there were 1,000,000 fires that were caused by children that were playing with lighters.
• In 2003 much as 34% of the litter that was cleaned from coasts around the world, was from the trash of cigarettes and their packaging.
• As much as $300 billion of the economic costs involved healthcare for the economy due to illness and diseases of cigarette smoking.

According to these figures, it is easy to see that smoking affects everyone.