- Although medical interventions to help individual patients quit smoking are one of the most cost-effective treatments in medicine, public-health approaches are even more cost-effective than treatment of individual smokers.
- Effective social policy measures to reduce smoking include:
- A complete ban on all forms of advertising smoking products is estimated to decrease smoking by 6%.
- An increase in the price of cigarettes of 10% would decrease smoking by adults by 3-4% and even more in children and in the developing countries.
- A policy of smoke free indoors can reduce smoking by 3.8% and reduce the hazards of second-hand smoke.
- The typically delivered school health education and laws prohibiting minors from purchasing cigarettes are not as effective.
- A global-health treaty Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has been ratified by 154 countries and its implementation could greatly reduce smoking worldwide.
