• Tobacco use kills around 120,000 people in the UK every year, about 330 every day - as if a jumbo jet crashed every day and killed all its passengers. In 1990, one study estimated that the number of UK deaths attributable to tobacco was as high 138,000, around 20% of all deaths.

• About 90% of cases of peripheral vascular disease which lead to amputation of one or both legs are caused by smoking - about 2000 amputations a year.

• It is estimated that several hundred cases of lung cancer in non-smokers in the UK every year are caused by passive smoking.

• More than 17,000 children under the age of five are admitted to hospital every year because of the effects of passive smoking.

• About 12.1 million adults in the UK smoke cigarettes - 29% of men and 28% of women. In 1972, 52% of men and 41% of women smoked cigarettes - nearly half the population of the UK. Now less than one-third smokes, but the decline in recent years has been heavily concentrated in older age groups: i.e., almost as many young people are taking up smoking but more established smokers are quitting.

• Smoking is highest among those aged 20-24: 36% of women and 43% of men in this age group smoke. Smoking remains higher than the national average among both men and women until they reach the age of 50-59.

• In Great Britain about 450 children start smoking every day.

• Almost a quarter of Britain's 15 year-olds - both boys and girls - are regular smokers - despite the fact that it is illegal to sell cigarettes to children aged under 16. In 1994 children aged between 11 and 15 smoked an estimated 1,154,000 000 cigarettes.

• People do give up - 20% of women and 32% of men are ex-smokers. More than two-thirds of current smokers (67%) would like to give up altogether.

• Smoking kills around six times more people in the UK than road (3,647) and other accidents (9,974), murder and manslaughter (448), suicide (4,175), poisoning and overdoses (1,071) and HIV infection (577) all put together (19,892 in total - 1996 figures).

• Polls show that the public overestimate the number of people who smoke and underestimate severely the dangers of smoking.

• 285,000 people are admitted to NHS (National Health Service) hospitals every year to be treated for diseases related to smoking. They occupy an average of 9,500 hospital beds every day.

• At least 50 million working days are lost to British industry every year from smoking-related sick leave.

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