Around the World: United Kingdom

Smoking costs $7.9b/year

Smoking costs Britain's national health system more than 5 billion pounds ($7.94 billion) each year, an amount that is more than five times higher than most current estimates, British researchers said.

Their study published in the British Medical Journal's Tobacco Control also found smoking directly kills about 110,000 people each year, a number that hasn't changed much over the past 10 years.