Half of smokers fail to quit habit alone, poll finds

BEIJING - About half of smokers said they have tried kicking the habit once without help from professional treatment but failed, an online survey showed.

The survey, jointly conducted by the media center of the Ministry of Health and the Life Times newspaper ahead of World No Tobacco Day, which fell on Monday, polled 15,559 Internet users in the country.

One-fifth of those polled said taking medication was necessary to help quit smoking but only 5 percent of them used such drugs. Forty-nine percent tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking on their own, the survey showed.