Take Five Nation's video: Five Shocking Facts About Smoking

Everybody knows that smoking is a pretty dumb idea! Don’t they? It’s still the single leading cause of preventable death in the word, yet people still do it! These are Five Shocking Facts About Smoking. Disagree with our list? Then please let us know in the comments section below. You can also subscribe here - http://tinyurl.com/prn4lec Join us on Twitter here - www.twitter.com/Take5Nation And Facebook here - http://tinyurl.com/orv4j3z Smoking Today Despite killing six million people each year, tobacco use is still rampant, according to the new edition of the Tobacco Atlas, a report from the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation. People have consistently been smoking fewer and fewer cigarettes for the last several decades in Europe and the Americas, but that improvement is offset by growth of cigarette consumption in China. The average adult there smoked more than 2,000 cigarettes last year. Smoking is also on in increase in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Bulgaria and Russia, where awareness is severely lacking. Kills Half People think that lung cancer is responsible for tobacco-related deaths; the disease kills more than a million smokers in the world every year. But it is just one of many tobacco-related ailments that can kill. Stroke, heart attack, bronchitis and emphysema are other top killers. And even if a smoker doesn’t get a disease caused by tobacco, smoking reduces the chances of surviving other conditions. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. It causes more than 480,000 deaths annually and smokers have a life expectancy ten years shorter than non-smokers. Billions in Marketing The tobacco industry spends heavily to win over users and supporters. In the U.S there are more than 150 lobbyists in Washington costing of more than $26 million every year. But all of that pales in comparison to the money spent on traditional marketing campaigns, like billboards and magazine advertisements, even with ever increasing regulation. The tobacco industry spends $900,000 every hour on advertising in the U.S —so if you spend five minutes watching this video, the tobacco industry will have spent $75,000 on marketing. Targeting the Vulnerable As people in developed nations like the U.S. increasingly realize the risks of smoking, the tobacco industry has invested resources in getting people in the developing world to adopt the habit. Faced with less regulation, marketing feeds the perception that smoking is not only “cool” but also provides health benefits. Smokers often ignore essentials to pay for their cigarette habit. In high-income countries about a third of smokers spend money on cigarettes rather than essentials like food. Nearly three-quarters do the same in middle-income countries like Brazil and Thailand. Regulation and Awareness is Working Generally speaking smoking is decreasing. Cigarette tax increases have been shown to improve the odds that smokers will quit and discourage people from picking up the practice in the first place. Other efforts like public smoking bans and restrictions on advertising have also had success. In New York City, where these practices have been adopted, the prevalence of smoking has declined by a third. The percentage of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes was 17.8 percent in 2013, a drop from 20.9 percent in 2005, and the lowest rate of smoking since researchers began tracking this figure in 1965.