For almost forty years, investigators, and more recently, litigators, have been seeking the facts about smoking. Perhaps the first major contribution to that end came as early as 1964, with the release of the Surgeon General’s report on smoking. Since that time, the accumulation of research facts related to smoking and health could fill a small library. Consider for a moment, just the following few facts. Today, there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world. It is estimated that the number will grow to 1.64 billion over the next 25 years. Further, more than 4 million people die each year from smoking related diseases. That number is projected to rise to 10 million per year by the year 2030. Ten million deaths per year About half of all longterm smokers die of tobaccorelated illnesses, and even more sadly, half of those die in middle age. This is but a small sample of the overwhelming facts associated with smoking. However, as staggering as these truths are, they seem to have had little impact on curtailing what is a lifestyle choice. Indeed, when we try to logically reconcile the public facts on smoking with the public’s response to smoking, we find a disconnection. More specifically, while it is public knowledge that tobacco products kill millions of people each year, at the same time, the raising of tobacco crops and the refinement and selling of tobacco products is legal and very profitable. Further, we know that the tax on the sale of tobacco products in most countries is used to fund many worthwhile government projects which most people would not like to do without. Thus, for many years, denying or ignoring not handling the truth about smoking seems to be the most expedient process.

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