Tobacco

Three thousand people died on September 11th. We've spent billions of dollars addressing the problem, and our media and culture are fixated on war and terrorism.

Meanwhile, 400,000 Americans die annually from smoking. Worldwide, smoking kills almost 5 million people a year (that's 14,000 people every day). The World Health Organization says the death toll will jump to 10 million people a year by 2030. That casualty rate is roughly equivalent to the Holocaust happening every year. Smoking is a serious issue that deserves proportional attention and a proportional response.

Source: Schroeder, S. A. (2004, January 15). Tobacco control in the wake of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. New England Journal of Medicine, 350(3), 293-301.