The rise in the price of the packet and the fall in purchasing power do not upset smokers to the point of encouraging them to quit their cigarettes for good. This is shown by a study carried out by Harris Interactive for Pfizer, made public this Thursday, February 16. If more than one in four smokers (26.2%) expect to quit smoking During the year, more than six in ten smokers surveyed (63%) say they are not ready to quit this bad habit. >> Read also: Tips and solutions to quit smoking
Each year in France, 750,000 people quit smoking for at least one year, or 2,000 people every day *.
Is tobacco a bad habit? Worse, an addiction. Smokers are addicted, they’re not afraid to say it. Almost seven in ten smokers (69%) believe that cigarettes are highly addictive. This dependence on tobacco is cited first by those questioned, ahead of drugs such as heroin (68.9%) and cocaine (67.7%).
Cigarettes, a harmful “pleasure”
Once the addictive side has been removed, smokers retain a certain attachment to cigarettes. Explanation: for many of them, the act of smoking has a recreational aspect. For these smokers, cigarettes are considered a real pleasure in life, which they cannot do without. >> To read also: Tobacco: the sweet taste makes you addicted to cigarettes
As proof of this boundless condition, nearly 19% of respondents admit that they would not quit smoking, even if they were to contract a disease linked to smoking. One in three cancers today is caused by smoking. The best known are the lung cancer, but tobacco can also be responsible for cancer of the throat, mouth, pancreas, kidneys, bladder… Tobacco is also one of the main risk factors for heart attack,stroke, ofarterial hypertension, chronic bronchitis, etc.
This study was carried out online in January 2012 with a panel of 1,000 smokers, aged 15 and over. The respondents were divided into three categories: 214 smokers (24.1%), 305 ex-smokers (30.5%) and 454 non-smokers (45.4%).
* Figure from the Ministry of Health and Sports