Smokers are killing people

Non-smokers of the world unite: You have nothing to lose but second-hand smoke lining your lungs with tar. According to an alarming report from the World Health Organization, more than 600,000 people die each and every year from the effects of second-hand smoke.

These are innocent victims, condemned to death by lung disease and heart ailments, a fatal sentence from those who carelessly indulge in the cruel act of smoking. Not content to inflict physical harm upon their own bodies, smokers kill the innocent with their toxic smoke.

Around the world, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths. It kills five million people a year. And if current trends continue, a billion people this century will die from this disgusting habit.

What will it take for smokers to see common sense? Graphic images of tar-lined lungs adorning cigarette cartons? A health levy on those who waste the resources of the medical system with their diseased lungs and failing hearts? A high rate of tax on tobacco products? Or the complete outlawing of such products altogether?

Thankfully, some progress is being made by the introduction of non-smoking laws by legislators around the world. But these efforts are still too few and too far between.