Julia K Cole

Although smoking is becoming less popular in many parts of the world, the total number of smokers is growing, global figures reveal. In 2012, 967 million people smoked every day compared with 721 million in 1980, data from 187 countries shows. The rise is linked to population growth, researchers told JAMA. With the Earth's population having more than doubled in the last 50 years to seven billion, there are simply more people to take up the habit. Several large countries, including Bangladesh, China and Russia, have seen increasing numbers of inhabitants take up smoking in recent years, the figures show. Indeed, some of the highest smoking rates are now seen in the developing world, according to the JAMA report from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in the US. But global smoking prevalence - the proportion of the world's population that smokes - has gone down. Around three in 10 men (31%) and one in 20 women (6%)...

Thanks to the Cooper-Clayton Tobacco Cessatation Program , my wonderful bosses and Louisville Metro Government, this year, I am celebrating an additional freedom--The Freedom of being a non-smoker!!!!  No longer a slave to nictotine, I am enjoying my life more than ever!  The money I have saved in the five months of being smoke free reaches into the thousands.  Not just for the packs of smokes, but the money spent on the extra bottles, cans and such of Fabreeze,  shampoo, perfume, deoderant, powder, air freshners and incense and other cleaning products and paint!!!! Becoming smoke free was the best thing I could have ever done!  And it is one freedom in particular I am thoroughly enjoying! Now that I no longer smoke, my taste and smell have dramatically improved!  Food and drink tasts so much better now.    Walking, running, climbing stairs are not so bad now.    And let's not forget that awful hacking ...