For Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Hal Boyle, it wasn't too difficult to tell a man from a woman. "If it always offers you a cigar, it's a man," he quipped. "If it always is asking for a cigarette, then waits for a light, it's a woman."
That may have been the case decades ago, but things have changed. No longer is smoking a public pastime. When one smokes, many people frown and a lot more openly protest. Physicians warn that people are lighting up at the cost of good health. So do the labels on cigarette packs. More than one-sixth of the world's 6 billion people are regular smokers. And more are picking up the habit than quitting.
Statistics show that 4 million people die every year from tobacco-related diseases. According to the World Health Organization, one smoking-related death takes place every eight seconds. If this trend goes unchecked, the number will more than double to 8.5 million annually by 2020. By 2030, there will be 10 million deaths a year, or one every three seconds. In Japan, about 30 percent of premature deaths are related to smoking.