How to quit tobacco smoking?
Dr Dongbo Fu and Simone St Claire from the World Health Organization give tips for quitting tobacco: a useful list of things to plan for tobacco users, encouraging them to succeed in this process! For their health and for the health of their loved ones.
The WHO e-Learning course Training for primary care providers: brief tobacco interventions
The WHO e-Learning course “Training for primary care providers: brief tobacco interventions” is converted from Part III of WHO training package “Strengthening health systems for treating tobacco dependence in primary care”, which was published in 2013 to assist countries in taking one of their first steps towards providing comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment to all tobacco users by integrating brief tobacco interventions (brief advice) into primary care.
Quitting tobacco

Quitting tobacco is not easy as tobacco dependence is a cluster of behavioural, cognitive and physiological phenomena. Very few tobacco users can successfully quit the habit in their first attempt. But the evidence is strong that it can be done. From quit lines to counselling to prescription medicines, there are numerous effective ways to quit.
Strengthening health systems for treating tobacco dependence in primary care
This training package aims to assist countries in taking one of their first steps towards providing comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment to all tobacco users by integrating brief tobacco interventions into primary care.
fact buffet
Health benefits of quitting
12 hours after quitting the carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal
Read the fact sheet about health benefits of quittingQuit line services
60%of countries operating toll-free national quit lines are in high-income countries
Read the WHO manual developing and improving national toll-free tobacco quit line servicesYou and your doctor
84%is the increased chance of quitting successfully after being intensively advised by a physician
See the summary of effectiveness data for smoking cessation interventionsVideo: how to quit smoking
Publications on quitting tobacco
- WHO monograph on tobacco cessation and oral health integration
- A guide for oral disease patients to quit tobacco use
- Toolkit for oral health professionals to deliver brief tobacco interventions in primary care
- Training for tobacco quit line counsellors: telephone counselling
- A guide for tobacco users to quit
- A guide for tuberculosis patients to quit smoking
- Toolkit for delivering the 5A’s and 5R’s brief tobacco interventions in primary care
- Toolkit for delivering the 5A’s and 5R’s brief tobacco interventions to TB patients in primary care