Are you a smoker โ or does someone you love smoke? If so, you, or they, have almost certainly had family, friends or colleagues give them reasons to stop.
On World No Tobacco Day, we are reminded that most smokers themselves would like to quit โ even if they will not admit it.
In 2022, more than two-thirds (67.7 per cent) of the 28.8 million US adults who smoked cigarettes wanted to quit, more than half (53.3 per cent) tried to quit, but fewer than 10 per cent succeeded, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Grisly photos on cigarette packs warn of smokingโs dangers, but do not go far enough, says Tony Mok, professor of clinical oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
โThe horrid pictures are merely a visual tool, but not an educational one,โ he says. โThe potential harm [from] tobacco smoking is too extensive to be listed on cigarette packets.โ
How much harm does it cause? Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, it kills more than 8 million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke.