Center for Social Innovation

Published: June 07, 2011

There are 6 trillion cigarettes smoked every year worldwide. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. How did this become reality? Professor Robert Proctor charts the development of smoking and the tobacco industry from ancient times to the 19th century, when the development of new technologies like flue-curing and matches made tobacco much more deadly. Yet "there is no doubt that the cigarette epidemic is primarily in the future," says Proctor.