Australian smokers will be extinct by 2030, researchers say

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For some reason I'm very cynical indeed about this one. But you can make of this what you will.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,1539107,00.html

Smoking will be virtually extinct in Australia within 25 years and more frowned upon than spitting in the street, according to researchers who have scientifically mapped the end of the smoking epidemic.

A study by Curtin University in Western Australia suggests that women will be the first to butt out for good. Statistically, there will be no female smokers in Australia by 2029, while men will take a year longer to kick the habit.

The study coincides with figures that show Australia has the lowest smoking rate of any industrialised country, and possibly the lowest in the world.

Smoking rates in Australia for those aged 15 and over have fallen from more than 70% some 60 years ago to 17.4% last year, according to the Australian Institute of Health. Graphic anti-smoking ads and tough bans on tobacco advertising and smoking in public places have helped drive down Australia's smoking rate.

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1. The best thing would be to really give them tools.

I know from studies and personal experience how useful and effective things like nicotine gum and inhalers are with quitting, but they are so expensive. If the government helped supply those, things would be a lot better. Even free nicotine gum. It might be true that you can get just as addicted to it, but its totally different; no kids see you chewing gum and think you're "cool", and nobody gets hooked by second hand smoke, as I originally was from my parents.