OK, there's unlikely to be anything in this article that you haven't heard at some point before, but indulge me and keep reading.

I love and hate statistics in almost equal measure for the fact that they can be manipulated to say almost anything you like. That said, there are some that are quite indisputable. For example, did you know that in Great Britain, 12 times more people have died from smoking  than died as a result of World War II? Or did you know that smoking kills one in ten adults. One in ten! Think about your 10 favourite people. Now think which one you'd like to sacrifice to cigarettes.

Globally, almost a third of all adults smoke; they buy 10 million cigarettes every minute, and as a result 50% of them* will die from their habit.

To those of you who have children; ask them to think of 10 adults they know who smoke, and then ask them which one they'd most like to die. They won't choose you of course, but then it's just a game and has no real power over what will actually happen. So it could be you.

Smoking is possibly the most arrogant indulgence any of us can undertake. Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and illness, and yet so many of us still do it. 

*Refers to long-term smokers. 

Is it that we just don't care as much about our loved ones as they care about us? Why else would anyone take such a risk. Ask anyone to get in a car with you and they will likely accept (if they already know you!). Before they get in, tell them "Oh by the way, there's a 10% chance you might die" and see how many still take up the offer. Yet, offer a smoker a cigarette and he or she will accept with glee. 

I know many people who play the lottery because each week they think they have a chance of winning. Their chance each week is approximately 1 in 14 million.  And yet smoking will kill half of all long-term smokers. A 50/50 chance. So the same people who believe they have a chance of beating 14,000,000:1 odds, also think they can escape the 2:1 odds of dying from tobacco.

In certain parts of the world where smoking is still on the increase, there is a direct correlation between the increase in smoking, and the understanding of its effects. In China for example, 60% of surveyed adults were unaware of the effects of smoking. But in the Western world, where we have known for at least 2 decades how harmful smoking can be... what's our excuse.

Again, it can only be arrogance. Arrogance to believe that it won't get us. I'm immune.  Remember to tell that to your children so they can remind themselves as they lower you into the ground.