I have never heard smokers brag about how tasty tobacco is, or how good it smells, or the advantages smoking provides to the body. Smokers and nonsmokers can agree that tobacco is harmful. As a nonsmoker, I have never understood how smoking is worth the toll on health. Smoking is a profound danger to public health. It is the No. 1 killer.
Smoking kills a million people a year in Europe, many of them victims of second-hand smoke. Increasingly, Europe and American states are instituting smoking bans. (France and New York City recently joined this club.) Prohibition would reduce smoking considerably, too.
Western countries have made great progress in reducing the number of smokers in their societies. John Britton, professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Nottingham, put it best: “We want to witness smoking change to an exceptional habit instead of a normal one.”
In developing countries, the story is quite different. In addition to poverty, illiteracy, and unhealthy living conditions, these countries suffer from alarmingly high numbers of smokers. Government complacency is part of the problem.
