There are 3.3 billion estimated smokers worldwide and every year five million people lose their lives due to smoking related diseases. In Turkey where 17 million smokers live, every day 250 people die to their smoking habit.

Pulmonologist Dr. Başak Burgazlıoğlu highlighted that the number of people who lose their lives because of the diseases that smoking causes will be more than the total number of those who die because of HIV, tuberculosis, traffic accidents, maternal mortality and suicides in the next 30 years. She noted smoking is a disease of addiction and smoking people should consult a doctor for its treatment.

The risk of catching upper respiratory tract diseases, chronic pharyngitis, laryngitis, recurrent infections, vocal cord disorder in females, windpipe cancers, recurrent bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, lung and other cancers is much higher in smoking people.

Moreover, the risk of lung cancer increases 13-22 times more, while gingival cancer increases 5-14 times, tongue cancer 4-33 times and throat cancer increases 7-16 times more.

Although smoking makes the body vulnerable for various diseases, Burgazoğlu said that this risk decreases after quitting smoking. "Even if females smoke in the same amount with males, their risk to catch a lung cancer is higher. The quitting of smoking decreases the risk of cancer."

In Turkey, the age of starting to smoke is between 11 and 18.