It’s funny to think that smoking used to be seen as cool, sexy, even good for us, with typical adverts from the 40s and 50s using doctors and surgeons to promote them. Today, things are slightly different. We now know that smoking is bad for us, and there are a whole host of other assorted downsides.

Vaping site GoSmokeFree.co.uk, decided to survey 600 respondents to find out what they thought the biggest turnoffs about tobacco smokers are. Top of the list, at well over a third (37%) was the smell of their breath. Like a days-old ashtray, usually – which is distinctly not pleasant. In second place, 35% of people said it was the fact smokers are unhealthy. They are in fact more prone to diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPB). 18% of people found it a turnoff that tobacco smokers’ clothes smell; somehow, no amount of scented washing powder or fabric conditioner can ever really erase the acrid aroma of burnt tobacco. And 10% were put off by smokers’ premature ageing; nicotine can cause blood vessels to narrow, reducing oxygen flow and nutrients to skin cells. You only have to look at the difference between someone once considered to be among the most beautiful women in the world, actress Brigitte Bardot, now, compared to her heyday in her twenties and thirties, so see how her smoking habit has aged her. The fear of the same happening to her could well have been a factor in supermodel Kate Moss’s decision to cut down on smoking.

But do we still consider smokers of tobacco to be cool today? GoSmokeFree.co.uk, asked the question and found the answer to be an almost overwhelming ‘no’ – 87% of us think it is definitely, totally, absolutely <uncool> . And people don’t really want to date them, either. GoSmokeFree.co.uk, also asked respondents whether they would rather date someone who smokes tobacco, someone who drinks alcohol, or someone who vapes.

Smokers came….bottom: only 15% of people would be up for dating them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority – 48% – said they would be happy to date someone who drinks alcohol (let’s face it, most people do drink, and many happy relationships have been launched off the back of it!), while 37% said they would rather date someone who vapes (that’s one more thing to add to your dating app profile, people!). At least this has the benefit of being less harmful than smoking, as well as not giving the vaper bad breath…

Gosmokefree.co.uk also asked respondents what they thought was the biggest drawback to smoking. 1 in 3 replied that it was the health impact. As outlined above, it can lead to all sorts of diseases, and when you think about it, it is pretty unnatural to fill your body with smoke. The nicotine within a cigarette can leave a residue of tar on the lungs, which, if someone smokes long and often enough, turns the healthy lung tissue from pink to black. Ultimately, many of the toxins in the tar will lead to disease, not just within the lungs but because they can be transported around the body by the bloodstream, they can affect other organs. They also stain smokers’ teeth and fingers. 16% of respondents said the financial cost was the biggest drawback. If you smoke a pack a day, at around a tenner a time, that’s £3650 spent every year. Imagine what else that money could be spent on – an exotic holiday, a second hand car, designer clothes or handbags…the possibilities are endless! 9% also cited the environmental impact; cigarette smoking releases toxic air pollutants into the atmosphere, and discarded cigarette butts on the ground can leak chemicals into soil and waterways, polluting them too.

Another question was whether respondents thought that people who smoke should pay more tax, due to the increased burden smoking places on the NHS; over 1 in 2 of us (56%) said yes, which seems fair enough. After all, by smoking you are actively choosing to harm yourself and your health. And finally, they asked whether people were aware that the cost of smoking to the UK government is approximately £12.6 billion a year, made up of costs of smoking-related care needs, NHS services, and lost productivity. 59% of us had no idea, but that is a pretty outrageous number.