Symbol of wealth and power, cosmopolitan, a metaphor for sex, an appitite suppressant for the body conscious - is smoking really a question of informed adult choice or just a hopelessly addictive, antisocial vice?

Not just a danger to those who indulge, smoking affects the non-user more than any other 'habit' - just 30 minutes in the company of a chain-smoker can cause lung damage in a non-smoker, while babies born to smokers are 15 times more likely to die from cot death (SIDS) than the babies of non-smoking mothers. Unique among commercial products, tobacco is the only substance sold where, if the consumer follows exactly the instructions for use, the end result is illness or death.

So why do we smoke? What is the appeal of a product that is clearly labelled 'I will harm you'? Will the habit ever be viewed by history as quaint and old fashioned, like asbestos roofing, lead paint, eating with your fingers, or pouring buckets of uring out of top-floor windows into the street below? This is Nicotine is an authoritative, informative, impartial, and above all helpful guide.