Calculating the 'Big Kill'

In 1985, the British Medical Association and
Health Education Council published The Big Kill,
a series of booklets estimating the number of people
killed by smoking in England and Wales.
Assigning a “precise” number of deaths to a risky
behavior provided opponents with a powerful and
often persuasive weapon. For two decades, the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
regularly produced an American version of the booklets. The
CDC tallies (estimates, actually) are available on the Internet,
where visitors can also review other consequences of smoking
such as years of life lost, medical expenditures, and productivity
losses.