Will humanity ever be able to stub out its final cigarette? Let’s take a Deep Dive.

🚭 Selective smoking bans have become more popular in recent decades. Now several jurisdictions are introducing total bans, or talking about it.

⚕️ The impact on public health of doing so would undoubtedly be positive.

👮 But smoking bans can also be difficult to implement and enforce.

1.1 billion The number of smokers globally is falling for the first time on record, but still stands at 1.1 billion.

82 million Meanwhile, the number of people vaping globally soared by about 30 percent between 2018 and 2021 to stand at 82 million.

84% Tobacco advertising is banned in television and radio, print publications, the internet and billboards in 84, 77, 68 and 79 percent of countries respectively.

90% More than 90 percent of smokers comply with partial smoking bans.

How much does smoking cost globally in annual healthcare spending and reduced productivity, according to the World Health Organization?

A. $10 billion
B. $100 billion
C. $1 trillion

Scroll to the bottom for the answer.

One of the earliest complete smoking bans was introduced in Russia in 1627 and lasted for 70 years. Also in the 17th century, Pope Urban VIII banned smoking on pain of excommunication and Sultan Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire banned it on pain of death.

✋ Stop now. New Zealand has banned the purchase of tobacco for anyone born after 2008.

🤔 Stop soon? It’s a route that other jurisdictions have also expressed an interest in going down, including the UK and Hong Kong.

❌ Stop-start. Bhutan enacted the first modern total smoking ban in 2004 but reversed it in 2021 due to concerns over its apparently arbitrary and inconsistent implementation.

🇨🇳 Non-stop. China, home to the world’s largest tobacco company, has often struggled with its tobacco control efforts.

🚨 The war on drugs redux? As with most efforts to prohibit substances, one problem with banning smoking is that it can lead to black markets.

You think banning tobacco is difficult now? Turns out it was much tougher in the past.

If you want to give up smoking, move to Costa Rica and steer clear of Turkey. 

As the example of Berdimuhamedow suggests, while tobacco bans, with their emphasis on public health, are often seen as being on the side of the angels, some anti-tobacco campaigners in the past have very much not been the good guys.

The answer to the quiz is C ($1 trillion).