In 2024, 67,107 people died in Catalonia; of these deaths, 10,939 were due to avoidable causes. In fact, 16% of deaths had lung cancer as the primary cause, and it is no secret that the reason is almost always smoking. It is still hard for it to be understood to what extent tobacco kills in a clear and forceful way. The reason is simple. Large tobacco companies have invested thousands and thousands of millions of dollars in scientific research with the goal not so much of proving that tobacco does not cause harm – something that nowadays is indefensible – as of diverting attention toward other possible causes of the disease. That is to say, they have invested in research that has other, totally legitimate objectives, such as genetics, pollution, or stress. The idea, as explained very well in an interview by Robert Proctor, the scientist who helped convict the tobacco companies in the United States, is to spread doubt about the direct effect of tobacco by dispersing the causes and thus blurring the responsibilities.

The fight against tobacco is the major challenge for healthcare systems, which allocate millions of euros to treatments. In fact, smoking remains one of the leading causes of death globally, and in Catalonia alone, 10,000 smokers die each year, a figure that rises to seven million worldwide. Now, researchers may have found a way to develop a new strategy against this addiction if it is confirmed that a rare genetic variant predisposes individuals to smoke less. By what proportion? Between 21% and 78% fewer cigarettes, according to a study published this Tuesday in the journal Nature communications.

Gemma has been living permanently connected to a machine for two years now, without which she couldn't breathe. She is 69 years old and has always been very athletic, passionate about hiking, and has always traveled with her husband in a camper van. Now she can no longer go mushroom picking or swimming in the sea, and she must monitor her altitude when she is in the mountains because of the respiratory failure she suffers from, called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)which is closely linked to smoking. She had been smoke-free for ten years when she was diagnosed with this chronic illness, but before quitting, she smoked a pack a day for over 30 years. "I went to the doctor for pneumonia when I was 50, and he told me, 'Either you quit, or you won't make it to Christmas,'" she recalls from her dining room.

On Sunday night the 30 minutes went deeper into The new smoking about ways to induce nicotine consumption by avoiding the traditional act of smoking, which is increasingly restricted. Delving into the world's greatest vice par excellence is approaching the grotesque. Because this addiction has always had the ability to become normalized. The recovery of archival images from 1988 of a school teacher surprised and somewhat annoyed because he couldn't smoke in the playground is the perfect synthesis of the resistance to considering it a bad habit. Seeing images now of people smoking in schools, airplanes, restaurants, or offices, and seeing how banning it would involve controversy and hours of debate in the media, is shocking.