Recommendations

• Comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs should include treatment of tobacco-use dependence as one component of the program.
• Policy and environmental changes that have been shown to increase quitting should be implemented. These include: increases in the price of tobacco products, clean indoor air policies, and decreasing the cost of proven treatments.
• Healthcare professionals have the opportunity and obligation to improve the health of their patients by encouraging and helping tobacco users to stop. Fortunately, effective clinical interventions (such as clinician advice to quit, providing social support and practical advice on how to quit, and pharmacologic aids) are now available to help smokers quit.
• Standard surveillance systems are needed worldwide so that comparable information is available on adult and youth prevalence, on national and local tobacco control programs and policies, and on cessation and prevention programs