A single cigarette sold on a street corner may not costa lot; however,

the overall costs of smoking are huge.

First, consider the cost of human life. The World HealthOrganization says about 10 people die of
a tobacco-linked disease every minute.
That rate adds up toalmost six million people dying from such diseasesevery year.
The majority of these preventable deaths happen inlow-income and middle-income countries.
The WorldBank says each of these countries has a gross nationalincome of less than $12,746.
Stopping smoking
For most people, stopping smoking is hard. Manybegan smoking as teenagers. They are used to
it. Also,tobacco contains the powerful drug nicotine.
Studies show people who want to stop smoking can doso with different treatments. Some get help f
rom electronic cigarettes,medicine or nicotine patches that reduce ones desire for the drug.
Dr. Nancy Rigotti works at Massachusetts General Hospital in the UnitedStates.
She says she finds that medicine and counseling services togetherwork best of all.
Other experts and former smokers offer even more effective advice: if you areconsidering starting s
moking, dont.
Illegal tobacco trade
But smoking costs more than the life of an individual. It can affect the health of an entire country.
The World Health Organization says low-income countries depend heavily ontaxes from cigarettes.
They use the money, in part, to pay the costs of healthcare for tobacco-related diseases.
But the illegal trade in tobacco products is further testing the economies oflowincome countries. WHO officials say the illegal trade earns about $31billion every year.
Douglas Bettcher is the director of the WHOs Department for the Preventionof NonCommunicable Diseases. He calls the illegal trade a monster withmany heads.
He says the trade enables young people to buy cigarettes at low prices,become addicted to tobacc
o and suffer serious health problems. It alsoincreases crime and reduces tax revenue.
It feeds the proliferation of transnational organized crime, another head of this multiheaded monster, and it drains resources, taxes, revenue from
thepurses of ministries of finance, governmental coffers.

The World Health Organization is urging United Nations member states tosign a treaty to end the ill
egal trade in tobacco products. Eight countries haveapproved the treaty. But the approval of
32 other countries is needed for it tobecome international law.
If the treaty succeeds, governments could put people who trade illegaltobacco products in jail ano
ther cost to countries budgets.
Im Kelly Jean Kelly.
VOAs Carol Pearson and reporter Lisa Schlein wrote parts of this story. Kelly Jean Kelly adapted it
for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story

patches n. pieces of material that contain a drug (the material is worn onyour skin, enabling the d
rug to slowly enter your body over a long period oftime)
non-communicable adj. not able to be passed to another person
monster n. a powerful thing that cannot be controlled and that causes manyproblems
proliferation n. rapid increase in number or amount; spread