Sri Lanka, May 29 -- In lieu of the upcoming World No Tobacco day, a study revealed that Sri Lankans spend Rs. 520 million per day on cigarettes and the health and economic costs of smoking were Rs.214 billion in 2019, the Alcohol and drug information Centre (ADIC) in a media briefing about tobacco habits said.

According to the 2020 Global Adult Tobacco Survey a total of 3.2 million Sri Lankans consume tobacco daily, and 20,000 premature deaths every year in Sri Lanka are caused by tobacco. Around 1.8 billion plastic cigarettes per year are not discarded properly in Sri Lanka which causes 7000 toxic chemicals into the ecosystem and harms the environment.

The media briefing by ADIC also said that "due to a lack of proper tax collecting ...