There is a bitter irony in the history of tobacco. Jean Nicot, the man who helped introduce tobacco to Europe, gave his name to nicotine, the very substance that would later trap millions of people in addiction.

What was once marketed as a plant of healing has become one of the world’s most lethal consumer products. Today, tobacco has found more modern disguises: freedom, style, rebellion, technology and even self-expression.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year. Lung cancer remains one of its deadliest consequences. Exposure to secondhand smoke also turns one person’s habit into a health threat for many others.

Yet tobacco remains one of the most normalized causes of preventable death. It is sold at street corners. It appears near schools. It lingers at cafe entrances, playgrounds, hospital gates and public spaces. It is treated as a private habit, although its effects are deeply public.

The most worrying part of this story is not only what tobacco does to adults. It is what the nicotine industry is doing to children and young people.

'Bright products, dark intentions'

For decades, the image of smoking was built around adulthood: masculinity, stress, glamour and sophistication. Today, the packaging has changed. The target has not. Young people are still being recruited, now through colorful devices, sweet flavors, sleek designs, social media aesthetics and the false promise of a "safer" alternative.

This is why the WHO's theme for World No Tobacco Day in 2025 matters: "Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products.” Its message is blunt: "Bright products, dark intentions."

That phrase captures the age we are in. The tobacco industry is no longer only selling cigarettes. It is selling illusion.

Electronic cigarettes are often presented as cleaner, smarter or less harmful. They are designed to look like technology, not tobacco. Their flavors sound more like candy than addiction. Their marketing speaks the language of youth culture. Their danger lies partly in their ability to feel harmless.

But nicotine addiction does not become harmless because the device looks modern.

Personal decision matters

At the Turkish Green Crescent, our counseling data shows how serious this shift has become. Between 2020 and 2024, more than 17,000 people applied to our Green Crescent Counseling Centers, known as YEDAM, for tobacco addiction support. Their average age of first smoking was 16.9. Nearly two-thirds had started before the age of 18.

This single number should change the way we speak about tobacco. Addiction rarely begins as a mature adult decision. It often begins as a teenage experiment, shaped by peer pressure, visibility, availability and marketing. Years later, that experiment may become a daily dependency affecting health, income, family life and dignity.

Our data also reveals another hard truth: only a small share of people who come to us for tobacco addiction initially define smoking as a real problem. Many have smoked for decades. Many smoke more than a pack a day. Many have tried to quit several times. Still, addiction often hides behind phrases such as "habit," "stress relief" or "personal choice."

This is why reducing tobacco addiction to willpower is misleading. Personal decision matters. But addiction is also a cycle created by chemistry, social environment, emotional triggers, commercial access and years of industry messaging.

To ask people simply to "quit" without changing the environment around them is not enough.

That is why the Green Crescent’s fight against tobacco is not a single campaign. It is a long public health movement built on prevention, advocacy and recovery.

Green Crescent fights addiction

Prevention starts before the first cigarette. Through the Türkiye Addiction Prevention Training Program, the Green Crescent reaches millions of students and adults every year with education on tobacco, alcohol, drugs, gambling and technology addiction. In classrooms across Türkiye, children not only hear that smoking is harmful. They learn how peer pressure works, how risky behavior begins, how advertising manipulates desire, and how a young person can say no without feeling isolated.

The Green Crescent Life Skills Education Program takes this one step further. It helps students build self-confidence, emotional awareness, healthy communication and decision-making skills. These may sound like simple tools, but they are powerful shields. A child who can manage stress, choose friends wisely and recognize manipulation is less vulnerable to the first cigarette, the first vape or the first risky invitation.

Advocacy is the second front. Tobacco cannot be fought only in counseling rooms. It must also be confronted in schools, streets, workplaces, public spaces and digital platforms. The Green Crescent has consistently called for stronger protection of children from tobacco visibility and access. That means stricter action against sales around schools, stronger enforcement of smoke-free areas, tighter control of online sales and clearer rules against indirect promotion on social media.

We have also built practical tools for public participation. The Green Detector mobile application allows citizens to report violations of smoke-free area rules. This turns tobacco control from a distant regulation into a shared civic responsibility. A parent near a playground, a patient near a hospital entrance or a young person in a smoke-filled public area can take action.

For people who want to quit, support must be easy to find. YEDAM provides free and confidential psychosocial support for tobacco, alcohol, substance, gambling and internet addiction. It is not merely a hotline. It is a support system with expert counseling, follow-up calls, motivation and social guidance. YEDAM has responded to more than 1.6 million calls, offering people a door back to control over their lives.

These initiatives are yielding positive results. Follow-up data shows that many people receiving tobacco addiction support continue to stay away from tobacco months after their first contact. At the 12-month follow-up stage, the rate of those maintaining non-use rises significantly. This tells us something simple and powerful: When people are not left to fend for themselves, recovery becomes more possible.

The Green Crescent has also developed the "Bırakabilirsin" mobile application for people who want to stop smoking. It helps users track their quitting process, follow their progress and connect with YEDAM support. In a world where nicotine products use technology to create dependency, public health must also use technology to support freedom from dependency.

This is the struggle we face now. On one side, an industry uses flavors, colors, influencers, online sales and lifestyle branding to make nicotine look harmless. On the other side, public health institutions must use education, law, counseling, digital tools and community action to protect young people and support those who want to quit.

What else must be done?

Individual support cannot carry the whole burden. Public policy must do its part.

Children and young people must be protected from the visibility and easy availability of tobacco and nicotine products. No child should walk past tobacco displays on the way to school. No young person should be targeted by flavored nicotine products dressed up as lifestyle accessories.

Smoke-free areas must also be widened. Parks, walking paths, hospital surroundings, shopping mall entrances, cafe outdoor areas and public spaces used by families should be protected from secondhand smoke. The right to breathe clean air is not a luxury. It is a basic public health principle.

Digital promotion must be treated with the seriousness it deserves. The advertising ban cannot stop at television, newspapers or billboards. Tobacco and nicotine products are now promoted through influencers, short videos, indirect lifestyle content, online sales networks and coded digital language. Regulation must follow the industry into the digital spaces where young people actually live.

Cessation support must also be made more visible, more accessible and less intimidating. People who want to quit should know where to go, whom to call and what kind of help they can receive. The message should be clear: You do not have to fight this alone.

Türkiye has strong experience in tobacco control. But the next stage requires a sharper response to a smarter industry. The old cigarette has been joined by new devices, new images and new tactics. Public health must be just as adaptive.

Protecting society and future

Tobacco addiction is not only a health issue. It is also a children’s rights issue, a family issue, an economic issue and a question about the kind of future we want to build.

Every cigarette sold near a school, every flavored nicotine product marketed as harmless, every public space filled with secondhand smoke and every online post that glamorizes addiction weakens that future.

But every person who quits, every child protected from exposure, every family spared from illness and every young person who says no to nicotine strengthens it.

The task before us is clear: reduce the visibility, appeal and accessibility of tobacco; expose the tactics that make addiction look attractive; and offer free, strong and compassionate support to everyone who wants to break free.

A society that protects its breath protects its future.