Tobacco-related illness accounted for 782,520 days of acute care hospital stay in Ontario and 22,210,155 acute care hospital days for all of Canada (The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2006). That’s more than 5 billion dollars of health care cost in Ontario due to tobacco-related causes (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2008).

11% of all new mothers in Ontario reported that someone regularly smoked in their presence during their pregnancy or up to six months after the pregnancy (Health Stats, n.d.)

“The [Tobacco] Group made fantastic profits from its actions. They conspired to conceal their conduct. They set about to defeat government policy designed to discourage the spread of smoking, which they knew to be harmful, including to Canada’s youth. They succeeded in their efforts, and deprived Canada of more than a billion in taxes and duties.” (Conclusion of the Attorney General’s Statement, 2003)

Every 7 minutes in Canada, someone dies from heart disease or stroke. Smoking is responsible for 14.54% of all heart disease and stroke deaths. (Statistics Canada, 2005)

The overall economic cost due to tobacco use is almost $6.1 billion for Ontario and $17 billion for Canada. (The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2006)

Tobacco kills about 45,000 Canadians a year. That's more than the total number of deaths from AIDS, car accidents, suicide, murder, fires and accidental poisonings combined. (The Lung Association, 2008)

Almost 16 million Ontarians reported noticing second hand smoke entering their homes from outside (The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2009)

Estimated 315 adults died because of lung cancer and ischemic heart disease attributable to exposure to second hand smoke inside the home. (The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, 2006)

For more than 50 years, tobacco industry has lied about the risks of its products, lied about addiction, lied about its manipulation of nicotine, and lied that its marketing has not targeted kids (Non-Smokers’ Rights Association, 2004).