About Smoking
About Smoking - At British American Tobacco, we have long accepted that smoking is risky. Our business is not about persuading people to smoke; it is about offering quality brands to adults who have already taken the decision to smoke
About Smoking - At British American Tobacco, we have long accepted that smoking is risky. Our business is not about persuading people to smoke; it is about offering quality brands to adults who have already taken the decision to smoke. We strongly believe that smoking should only be for adults who are aware of the risks.
About Smoking - In a nutshell, our view on smoking is this:
British American Tobacco companies produce fine quality products that provide pleasure to many millions of adult smokers around the world. Along with the pleasures of cigarette smoking come real risks of serious diseases. We also recognise that, for many people, smoking is difficult to quit.
Smoking is a cause of various serious and fatal diseases such as lung cancer, respiratory disease and heart disease. The risks associated with smoking are primarily defined by epidemiological (population statistical) studies that show that groups of lifetime smokers have far higher incidence of certain diseases than comparable groups of non-smokers.
These risks tend to be greater in groups that start smoking younger, smoke for longer, and smoke more cigarettes per day. The statistics, however, do not tell us whether a particular individual smoker will avoid an associated disease by smoking less. and all smoking behaviours are associated with significantly increased health risks.
Studies also show that the only way to avoid smoking-related risks is not to smoke in the first place, and the best way to reduce the risks is to quit. There is more about the health risks in Health risks of smoking. Click on the drop-down navigation bar.
Can people quit smoking?
Smoking can be hard to quit. However, we believe it is important that smokers who decide to quit realise they can, provided they have the motivation to quit and the belief that they can.
Many smokers are said to be dependent on cigarettes because they know the real risks of disease involved but still smoke frequently and find it very difficult to quit.
It has been known for centuries that smoking is difficult to quit. Under international definitions for determining whether people are dependent on smoking, including those from the World Health Organisation, many smokers would be classified as being dependent.
However, millions of smokers have quit without any medical help, and millions have modified how often, where and when they smoke in the light of differing social norms. In some countries, such as the UK, there are now as many ex-smokers as smokers.
While smoking is commonly understood to be addictive, we believe it is important that smokers who decide to quit realise they can, provided they have the motivation to quit and the belief that they can. We believe that if you want to quit, you should.
Various ways have been suggested to help people quit, including using ‘nicotine replacement therapy’ (patches and gums). While all these forms of assistance may be beneficial, the most important factors in successfully quitting are having the motivation to quit and the self-belief that you can do so.
