This week marks National Non-Smoking Week in Canada.
The Canadian Cancer Society holds the week in January each year to educate Canadians and raise awareness about the negative health effects of smoking and to offer support to help smokers quit.
According to a Canadian Community Health Survey conducted in 2022, 3.8 million people smoke.
The Society says 46,000 Canadians die each year as a result of tobacco use, around 30 per cent of them are cancer deaths.
Surveys have also found youth vaping is on the rise. In the 2021-22 school year, 24 per cent of high school students in Canada in grades 10-12 were vaping, up from nine per cent seven years earlier in the 2014-15 school year.
The objective is to achieve under five per cent tobacco use by 2035, but the society says much work still needs to be done.
National Non-Smoking Week runs until January 27. It has been held annually by the society since 1977.
