Smoking causes significant health issues and costs globally each year. An estimated 4.9 million people die annually from smoking-related causes. Both male and female smokers lose over a decade of life on average. The heaviest smokers are in Greece, averaging 3,000 cigarettes per person per year. Smoking costs the U.S. economy billions each year in lost productivity and healthcare costs. As an alternative, electronic cigarettes were introduced in 2004 and aim to deliver nicotine without the harmful substances in tobacco smoke.

1. Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper.