Smoking "no longer part of life," Lansley hopes We are going to continue to try to act against smoking for the simple reason that most smokers want to quit and it is the biggest avoidable cause of early mortality. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he added that more than a third of smokers say they want to stop, with just half of the 800,000 people who attempt it each year succeeding. "We want to continue to increase that proportion, help more people to stop," he added. According to figures released by the Department of Health, more than 300,000 children aged under 16 try smoking each year, with five per cent of children aged 11 to 15 being regular smokers. About 39% of smokers said they were smoking regularly before the age of 16. Lansley dismissed the suggestion that smoking could become more attractive to young people if it was kept hidden and insisted the key issue was about "shifting the culture." The health minister, Anne Milton, said: "We cannot ignore the fact that young people are recruited into smoking by colourful, eye-catching, cigarette displays.