It really shouldn't come as a surprise to hear that smoking is pretty bad for you.
It shouldn't be news that the government wants people to stop smoking as well, given just how bad it is for you - and how much it costs the NHS to treat people with smoking-related health problems.
What might be surprising is just how many people have stopped smoking, and how successful the anti-smoking campaigns that have been organised have been.
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According to recent figures, around 270,000 people quit smoking in England in 2017, with similarly sharp drop-offs in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
That leaves just under 15 percent of the adult population as smokers, a grand total of 6.1 million people, down from 15.5 percent (6.3 million people) in 2016, reports the Daily Mail.
The news was welcomed by anti-smoking charities and by public health advocates.
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Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said: "ASH supports the Government's vision, set out in the Tobacco Control Plan for England, of a smoke-free generation.
"But smoking must become history for all of society not just for the wealthy.
"Cuts in public health funding and lack of treatment for smoking on the NHS mean poorer more heavily addicted smokers, including those who are pregnant, are not getting the help they need to quit."
According to the same statistics, there were nearly 500,000 hospital admissions due to smoking-related health complaints in 2016 and 2017.
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That is a small increase on figures from the year before and a marked jump on the numbers from a decade ago.
The nation is divided on where our smokers are: industrial Northern cities and towns such as Manchester, Kingston Upon Hull, Blackpool and Hartlepool lead the country for most smoking-related illnesses, while more affluent areas of the South such as the Isle of Wight, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham had rates of around a third of the worst cities.
"It's encouraging to see smoking rates dropping significantly in the UK," said Alison Cook, the British Lung Foundation's director of policy.
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"Protecting your baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life.
"The government must act urgently to ensure pregnant women are given first-rate support."
Over a quarter of pregnant women in Blackpool, one of the worst areas for smoking-related hospital admissions, smoked throughout their pregnancies, compared to just 1.8 percent in Westminster.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: UK News, Smoking, Health