In 1986 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the use of tobacco in all its forms is incompatible with the achievement of the health objective and that nicotine is addictive; “the cigarette is a death tool and one cannot take a neutral stance towards it”. About 90% of smokers are familiar with the lethal consequence of smoking, others see in cigarette consumption a health risk factor, whereas others minimize it out of fear of depriving themselves of pleasure. Many ignore the real dangers of smoking because real risks are often shadowed by the false truth that the real hazards related to smoking have yet to be proven scientifically. This is not true as statistics show that many more people die each year due to smoking rather than in car accidents, heroin consumption, AIDS, homicides and suicides. The consequences of smoking had been underestimated up to the 1990s but after a lot of research on the subject we can state that smoking is the greatest danger to our lives and it kills more people than any other illness. 50% of smokers die due to damage caused by the habit of smoking, 1/4 between their 35th and 65th year of age and another quarter in later years.

Thousands of deaths due to cancer are related to tobacco smoking, indeed tobacco addicts have a lung cancer rate 20 times higher compared to non-smokers and 90% of all lung cancer pathologies affect cigarette smokers. The likelihood of contracting these pathologies increases by 10 to 15 times when smoking 20 cigarettes a day and by 5 times already when smoking 10 cigarettes a day. In other words, the more you smoke, the more you risk. Nowadays we have noticed also an increase in cancer of; the oral cavity, the bladder, the stomach and the colon. Smoking contributes to one out of three deaths due to cardiac pathologies because of its consequences on coronary vessels and in fact estimates confirm that it causes 60% of heart diseases with fatal course. It is certain that smoking shortens life by about 8.3 years according to some studies, whereas others mention a life reduction of 12 years but all agree in saying that smokers die prematurely by sacrificing a good part of their lives for the pleasure of smoking.