Yet the BHF's annual smoking statistics, also released on New Year's Day, indicate that more people worldwide die from smoking than from cancer.

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One in five people in Britain die from smoking, more than 115, 000 every year.

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Nearly half a million Americans die from smoking--related illnesses each year, the biggest reversible mortality statistic in the Western world, yet 46 million adults and 3.2 million teenagers in the U.S. continue to puff away.

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Some 70% of Indonesian men older than 20 smoke, and 400, 000 Indonesians die each year from smoking-related illnesses, according to the World Health Organisation.

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Looking at medical records from women between 2000-2010 showed they were 25 times more likely to die from lung cancer than their non-smoking friends.

BBC: Female smoking death risk 'has soared'

But 20 percent of the population or 12 million people smoke in France, and more than 70, 000 reportedly die every year from what doctors attribute to smoking-related illnesses which many French people, at least in my experience, instead attribute to prolonged exposure to American culture.

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Women smoking nowadays are far more likely to die as a result of their habit than they were in the 1960s, according to a new study.

BBC: Female smoking death risk 'has soared'

Clinton said studies show that 3, 000 teenagers begin smoking every day, and 1, 000 will die early because of it.

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Health Minister Shona Robison told members that a person who started smoking at the age of 15 was three-times more likely to die from its effects than someone taking up the habit in their 20s.

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The French government adopted the ban after figures showed smoking was on the rise, and that an estimated 5, 000 people a year die of secondhand smoke.

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