The effect of tobacco additives on smoking initiation and maintenance

shows that smoking rates among men and women aged 15 years and over fell from 33.1% in 1989 to 17.2% in 2008. This fall in smoking prevalence has led to substantial improvements in public health in Brazil due to the strong as-sociation between smoking and morbid condi-tions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer (lung, larynx and other sites), cardiovascular morbidity, and other se-vere illnesses. Levy et al.