Smoking’s harm is immediately reduced and can be virtually eliminated over time after quitting, even for lifelong smokers. It is never too late to quit! Advanced tobacco control policies can help increase quit rates, a prerequisite for achieving significant reductions in smokingrelated deaths during the first half of the 21st century.

Many people kick the habit easily while others struggle through a difficult cycle of addiction. Quitting is possible and is increasingly becoming the norm. Many countries now have more ex-smokers than current smokers.

Most ex-smokers quit successfully on their own (“cold turkey”), but an increasing number of programs and aids are available to help liberate smokers from their addiction. Nicotine replacement therapies (gum, patch, and inhaler) and pharmacologic agents, such as bupropion and varenicline, are available in many countries.

Communication technologies—such as telephone quitlines, text messaging, interactive telephony, and online counseling— offer important support. Psychological and behavioral therapies, including behavior modification, hypnosis, meditation, and acupuncture, also have been employed.

Cessation programs change individual lives, reshape social norms and community values, and foster a world where children are less likely to casually experiment with cigarettes and where adults gain confidence in their ability to quit.

Within hours of quitting, some of the damage done by smoking begins to reverse. By one year, the risk of coronary heart disease is decreased to half that of a smoker. After five to fifteen years, the risk of a stroke is reduced virtually to that of people who have never smoked. Cancer risk also reduces significantly over the decade after quitting.

China: Quit rates increased from 9 percent in 1996 to 12 percent in 2002, an increase of 10 million ex-smokers.

Japan: Male smoking rates declined from 80 percent in 1960 to 40 percent in 2005, due mostly to smokers quitting.

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.