As we approach a new year filled with fresh possibilities, countless people will try to quit smoking. Everyone has their reasons to butt out: to improve their health, to eliminate the costs of tobacco products or to avoid spreading secondhand smoke.

Yet should smoking be considered an individual disease or is it a behaviour that is shaped by social conditions?

If smoking is a disease it requires medical treatment. If lighting up is a social behaviour it is shaped by norms, attitudes and environmental influences. So, is smoking an illness or a collective activity?

(more…)