Tobacco Industry Profits $7,000 For Every Single Tobacco-Related Death

A study conducted by a health campaign group found that each time a smoker dies, the tobacco industry makes $7,000.

The World Lung Foundation (WLF) published the results of its study on Thursday, estimating that there are about 6 million people that die each year as a result of smoking-related complications.

An industry which produced enough cigarettes to supply the more than 5.8 trillion cigarettes that the Daily Mail reported were smoked last year.

In their global Tobacco Atlas, the WLF and the American Cancer Society said that in 2013, the last year for which detailed figures were available, tobacco industry profits were more than $44 billion. Meanwhile, 6.3 million people died from smoking-related illness, equivalent to a profit of $7,000 for each death caused by tobacco.

In China, the world's most populous country, almost 2,250 cigarettes were smoked per person over age 15 last year, making it one of only around a dozen countries topping 2,000.

"The significant reductions in smoking rates in the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, and other countries that implement increasingly tight tobacco control laws have been offset by the growing consumption in a single nation: China," the report said.

Tobacco is the world's leading preventable cause of lung cancer and chronic conditions, including heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

The Tobacco Atlas identified more than 20 countries where girls smoke more often than boys.

"Whether it's the link between tobacco and increasing rates of lung cancer among women or the ever-increasing number of health conditions and deaths related to tobacco use, the health and economic case for reducing tobacco use has never been clearer," says John R. Seffrin, the chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.