Smoking causes more than 100,000 deaths in the UK each year and now the UK government is promising that it will become a driving force in helping smokers all over the world to quit.
Speaking at the UK launch of World No Tobacco Day, public health minister Caroline Flint outlined plans to spotlight the "significant influence" of smoking on health during the UK's EU presidency and pledged support for an international tobacco control treaty.
Cancer Research UK's chief executive Professor Alex Markham has critised the government and complains that the UK has in fact failed to take a strong lead in banning smoking in public places, saying that banning smoking in workplaces and enclosed public places is the most effective action to halt the damage wreaked by second hand smoke.
Health minister Flint said the UK would urge nations to sign up to the Convention for Tobacco Control - the first international public health treaty.
World No Tobacco Day, launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), is focusing on the role health workers play in getting the message across and setting an example.
Current government proposals intend to end smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public places in England and Wales by 2008, with exemptions for pubs that don't serve 'prepared' food, which would leave thousands of pub workers unprotected, said the charity.
But Ms Flint saw fit to tell health professionals at the London launch that "It is important to remember that smoking is banned throughout, or limited in certain areas, in almost 90% of workplaces so we are not starting at zero."