What to do about the tobacco companies still killing millions? Make them pay – and heavily

‘Millions of people are hooked on a product that they can’t stop using, creating a continuous demand.’ Imperial Tobacco Group factory in Nottingham. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

For me, this is personal. Tobacco kills one person every five minutes in the UK and is responsible for about 150 cases of cancer every day. Researchers estimate that 9.3 million people in the UK have died because of smoking since the 1960s. This figure includes some of my nearest and dearest.

Growing up near Liverpool, which had one of the highest smoking rates in England and still does, I was constantly exposed to the toll this addiction takes on lives. People I knew were unable to work due to illness; children like me inhaled toxic cigarette smoke; and the financial and health burden on my home town weighed heavily.