Every year on May 31, the World Health Organization designates a global observance known as World No Tobacco Day. First established in 1987, the event was created to draw international attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths and diseases it causes worldwide. In the nearly four decades since its founding, the campaign has grown into one of the most recognized public health initiatives in the world.

According to WHO data, tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year. Of those deaths, approximately 1.3 million are non-smokers who die simply from breathing in other people’s smoke. Tobacco-related illnesses place an enormous burden on healthcare systems globally, costing trillions of dollars in medical expenditures and lost productivity annually.

Nicotine addiction is significantly more powerful when it begins during adolescence. The developing brain is far more susceptible to dependence, and research consistently shows that approximately 90% of adult smokers began smoking before the age of 18. In other words, if a person makes it to adulthood without picking up the habit, they are unlikely to start. This is why prevention campaigns targeted at teenagers and school-age children are considered the most effective long-term strategy in global tobacco control.

Beyond individual health consequences, the tobacco industry’s environmental footprint is often overlooked. Tobacco farming contributes to deforestation, soil degradation, and the heavy use of pesticides. Cigarette butts are among the most collected items in coastal cleanups worldwide. The full cost of tobacco extends well beyond the smoker’s own body.

To mark this year’s World No Tobacco Day, we spoke with Mr. Jack, a long-term former smoker now living in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Q: How did you first start smoking?

“Everybody in my life was a smoker,” he said. Growing up in the United States in the 1990s, he was surrounded by smokers on all sides, his father, his mother, his stepfather, his grandmother, his grandfather. Tobacco was simply part of the landscape of daily life. The family would gather on a sofa in the garage to smoke, since smoking indoors was discouraged. He estimates he had his first cigarette at around 13 or 14 years old. By the age of 15, he was smoking regularly. His mother was upset at first, but only for a day. “Day two, we were smoking as a family together,” he recalled.

Q: What finally made you decide to quit?

Mr. Jack quit in November 2007, at the age of 28, while living in Warsaw, Poland. The immediate trigger was his health. The cold Polish winters had made him susceptible to recurring bronchitis, chest infections that would leave him coughing for three to four weeks at a time. And yet, even during those weeks of illness, he continued to smoke. One day he picked up a book about quitting smoking, the name of that book was Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking. He read it, and forgot about it. Then he got sick again. This time, he decided to simply not smoke while he was recovering. After two weeks without a cigarette, he got better. And when the moment came to light up again, something had shifted. He put the pack down. “I left a pack of cigarettes on the windowsill for a month, maybe longer,” he said. “I used to smoke in front of that window. And I never touched them again.”

Q: Has quitting improved your health?

Mr. Jack pointed to a close friend of roughly the same age who has continued to smoke throughout his adult life. “He doesn’t sound very good right now,” Mr. Jack observed. “He’s constantly coughing and clearing his throat.” He says he can credit quitting for the difference in how he feels today. Looking back on his smoking years, he acknowledges that being young softened the blow for a while. He was still active, still playing basketball with friends, still living with energy. But the creeping signs were there, the persistent coughs, the smell that clung to everything. “It just slowly started grinding on my mind,” he said.

Q: What is your message for young people today?

Mr. Jack was direct and unsparing. “It’s a nasty habit, it’s very bad, and there’s no benefit to it at all,” he said. He sees no case for it, not social, not psychological, not financial. On the financial point, he was particularly emphatic. Fifteen years of buying cigarettes added up to a significant sum, and that was before current inflation. Today, living in Chiang Mai, he says he makes a point of not surrounding himself with smokers, and that if he finds out any teenager in his circle has taken up smoking, he will “go to whatever length he can to push them to stop.”

Smoking is not simply a health risk, according to public health authorities, the single leading cause of preventable death in the world. The most well-known consequence is lung cancer. Smokers are approximately 15 to 30 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers, and smoking accounts for around 85% of all lung cancer cases globally. But the damage extends far beyond the lungs. Smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease. Smokers are two to four times more likely to develop heart disease than non-smokers, and the risk of stroke is similarly elevated.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD is almost exclusively caused by smoking. It is one of the leading causes of disability and death worldwide, and it is irreversible. Once lung tissue is damaged, it does not regenerate.

Second-hand smoke is a serious and often underestimated risk. Non-smokers who regularly breathe in tobacco smoke face significantly elevated risks of lung cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses. Children are especially vulnerable. Exposure to second-hand smoke during childhood is linked to asthma, ear infections, sudden infant death syndrome, and slower lung development.

On the question of quitting: it is never too late. Within 20 minutes of the last cigarette, blood pressure and heart rate begin to drop. Within 12 hours, carbon monoxide levels in the blood normalize. Within a year, the risk of coronary heart disease drops by roughly half. Within 10 to 15 years, a former smoker’s risk of lung cancer approaches that of someone who has never smoked. The body has a remarkable capacity to recover, if given the chance.

Effective cessation support includes nicotine replacement therapy, prescription medications, behavioral counseling, and telephone or online quit-lines. Research shows that combining multiple approaches significantly increases the likelihood of success. For anyone considering quitting, reaching out to a healthcare provider is a strong first step.