It has been calculated that the global consumption rate of cigarettes is about 1,000 per person per year – with 6 trillion cigarettes smoked every year.  The modern cigarette is a carefully designed object, which the tobacco industry – with mass marketing and scientific engineering – has packaged into a product that will cause nearly 10 million fatalities per year by 2030. As a public health priority, curbing smoking on the global level can significantly reduce premature and preventable death. Presenting scholarly research and advocating for pressure against the forces of the tobacco industry, Stanford Professor Robert Proctor is introduced by Dr Michele Barry and speaks as part of a speaker series entitled “The Impact of Multinationals on Global Health,” which was co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Global Health at the Stanford Medical School and the Program in Healthcare Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.