And ministers can be induced to water down bans on smoking in public places by decreeing more areas where people can still puff away.

ECONOMIST: Smoking, governments and health: A wisp of public-spiritedness | The

Nearly half a million Americans die from smoking--related illnesses each year, the biggest reversible mortality statistic in the Western world, yet 46 million adults and 3.2 million teenagers in the U.S. continue to puff away.

FORBES: Quitter's Aid

He was fully aware that some faraway control-room producer must have been anxiously cutting away every time he took a puff.

FORBES: Christopher Hitchens, As I Knew Him