Smoking is a health hazard. Not many people would disagree with this statement which has been scientifically demonstrated, yet the number of smokers has not significantly diminished: in fact, heavy smoking is on the rise and young people are beginning to smoke at an increasingly younger age. Though the medical and economic consequences are known, they seem to have little or no effect on smokers’ behaviour. How can this be explained? Why is it that despite countless anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette smoking remains so popular? Why do smokers find it so difficult to quit, even when their lives are at risk? And how did tobacco smoking, a seemingly harmless activity when first introduced in 16th-century Europe, become so widespread in a few decades? The answer to these questions depends on another, more fundamental, question: Why do people smoke and why do they smoke tobacco? In order to break the futile vicious circle of guilt and failure, Gilbert Lagrue examines both the positive and the negative effects of tobacco.The author’s goal is to lead the reader from understanding to action. Part of the book is devoted to the practical aspects of giving up smoking. How do smokers decide to quit? Is it entirely a question of will power? What are the different methods used in giving up smoking? How can smokers fight against physical and psychological dependence? And how can those who have quit ensure that they will not start smoking again?

Professor Gilbert Lagrue is a renowned specialist on tobacco abuse and withdrawal. He is the founder of the tobacco-withdrawal unit at Hôpital Henri Mondor in Créteil (a Paris suburb); the principles and methodology he has developed there have been adopted by more than ten Paris hospitals.