I am totally against smoking in the sense that I am quite sporty. I like my surfing, and swimming and snowboarding. And just the thought that I might be holding myself back from being any better at those because I am inhaling some filth, you know, that was never going to interest me.

I am against smoking too because I see my friends who smoke, and I just sit there trying to work out what they get out of it, you know. It’s such a bad addiction to have because there is no pay off. There’s so little return for what it can actually do to your health.

When I was younger there was an allure around smoking because it was bad and you didn’t understand why it was bad. Now looking back, I think what a ridiculous thing to ever hold in any regard.

My parents always said ‘yeah if you want to smoke you can smoke’. By removing that element of ‘bad’ and ‘forbidden’, it actually made me think ‘oh well there’s nothing much to it’.

Luckily for me I have always been able to put my hand up and go ‘you know what, it’s not for me’.

I think that the public perception of smoking is definitely shifting away from it being something that’s perceived as cool or anything like that. I mean you just need to see the dirty smokers outside bars huddling around a cigarette, you know, dying to get back inside - literally.

I think smokers are selfish. You should ask yourself ‘What is this doing for me and how is this improving my life? I’m smoking for me and me only’, cos you sure as hell shouldn’t be smoking because you think someone else might think you are cool for it. So ask yourself ‘Is this addiction really improving my life or is this something in fact I can do without’.

Personally, I could never have a relationship with a smoker, it would go against everything I stood for and part of me would think that that person just didn’t give themselves enough respect.

I guess if you are in a group of peers and they’re smoking and you’re not then surely you are the point of difference. You are doing something that is not what they are doing. But saying ‘look I don’t need the cigarettes to make me feel whatever you guys are feeling’, that can be hard. I know what peer pressure is all about, but if you can take that stance then ultimately you are going to be better off and will get the respect of your friends from doing that.

It’s funny. Isn’t smoking the most preventable cause of death in the world? And the biggest cause of death in the country? And it can be prevented! What else do you need to say? Why have you got a cigarette in your hand if you know it is killing you? What’s the point?

The reason I think people think that smoking is cool is it’s a little bit of reverse brain washing. We see the commercials with the lung and the tar, and the kid in the back seat and the woman smoking. So we see how horrible that is, but then we look around and see our peers and role models with cigarettes in their hands. And we know how disgusting it tastes. We know how much it makes us cough, those first few, two or three times. But if they’re still smoking, and they put so much effort into smoking enough to get addicted, there must be something worth doing in that. And that’s the message that I think is the hardest thing to break. It’s a subconscious message. We’re not sure why we think it is cool, but there must be a reason for people to try so hard to do something so horrible. It’s like banging your head against a wall to feel the relief afterwards.

Tobacco companies spend billions of dollars to trick you into thinking that smoking is cool. You need to wake up and realise that the reason you think it is cool is because people out there are trying to convince you that it is cool.

The tobacco industry are making money off our deaths. They are tricking us youth everyday into smoking and it is up to us to cut it out.

I think the main reason that many musicians and actors smoke is because they think it is cool and relaxing. A lot of people in the music and TV industries, they work these hectic hours and sometimes you’re working non-stop for months at a time with big breaks in between. And they smoke because of that brainwashing - tobacco industries make us think that tobacco relieves stress. But you know what, you get along without smoking. People who don’t smoke have stress free lives too. Everyone has stress, everyone is going to deal with it, smokers or non smokers. Non smokers are going to live a lot longer, you may as well do it that way. If you smoke, it just makes you more stressed cos you will start worrying about your health and your life.

I had a great run in with a band. I won’t say the name of the band, a NZ band, a very cool band I say. And I was back stage with them and having the privilege of hanging out in the green room, you know it is very rock and roll. And I lit up a cigarette. It was when I was a smoker. And they politely asked me to put it out. You’ve never seen a Maori go red like that. I was so embarrassed that I was so uncool with this rock and roll group that that was one of the big reasons I quit. That’s when I found that book and quit. Because this band just made me feel real uncool. I felt like a real sucker eh.

If I had any advice to give to anyone wondering whether to try smoking, it would just be to really think about your future and your health and ask yourself 'what is the actual point?' and 'why do I want to smoke?'. There are no ups from smoking - it's all down.

I believe that changing smoking in bars and stuff is awesome and it's done a lot. It's good to be able to walk out of a bar or play a concert and not stink of smoke. Because when you're up on stage you know you get pretty exhausted and you don't want to be breathing in the stinky smoke.

There's no actual point to smoking. You look like a bit of a monkey just standing there sucking on it.

I never started smoking because my parents smoked when I was younger. That was it. I had seen them smoking and then I had experienced them quitting and it was a really big thing. My father quitting was a really big influence on me. My dad is my role model so if he could quit why would I bother starting? It would be like starting the cycle again and there is no point in doing that.

I felt like I could resist the peer pressure to smoke. But I did notice it amongst my friends. I would talk to them and say 'why are you starting to smoke, do you think it's cool?' Sometimes you'd feel like the odd one out a little bit but I figured the benefits of not smoking outweighed the benefits of being cool and down with those people. I was like ’they are just wasting their time and it's really bad for your health’. I was quite aware of the health risks, even at a young age, so I never really got into it.

For a lot of smokers, they use a cigarette like a crutch socially because they feel awkward and they want an activity to do while they are hanging out with other people so they don't feel so awkward. Maybe if you have low self-esteem or you just feel awkward, it's a distraction. You don't need to use a cigarette to do that, you can do other things. Just enjoy yourself man, be a healthy person, be proud of that. Get on a dance floor and have some fun instead of standing outside the club smoking the cigarettes.

When I was a teenager, man, a lot of my girlfriends smoked and I hated kissing them. So I just want to encourage girls to not smoke cos it's just disgusting. It's horrible, I hate that, it's yuck. It is a very vivid memory from my teenage years. I don't date girls who smoke anymore cos it just tastes disgusting man.

It might be hard to imagine now but I have a lot of friends in their mid twenties who are struggling to quit. When they started they didn't have any problem; they would say 'I'll quit in time'. Now they are getting to their mid to late twenties and they realise it is an addiction and they can't choose to stop. They want to stop, but they feel like their bodies are telling them that they can't because they are addicted. Now they are in the position where they get frustrated at their attempts to quit that are unsuccessful. For so many of them, trying to quit three times in a year is hard. You can tell how proud they are when they have cut down, and they are like 'I'm down to this many this week' and I'm like 'that's good man'. And then a couple of weeks later it is back to the old habit. You can tell there's a bit of sadness and defeat there.

If you could just imagine how hard it will be to stop smoking in your later life, it would be the motivation and incentive not to start.

The worst thing about smoking is quite obvious, it kills you. It's very simple. It's just wack, man. So I would just say, ‘don't start!’ It's a lot easier than trying to quit. So if you don't start, you don't have to quit.

A lot of people smoke just to fit in and to be accepted, which sucks because they should just be themselves rather than trying to follow a trend or do what everyone's doing.

I did have a few mates at school who did it to show off. They used to go off behind the pavilion and have smokes but they were seen as the ‘losers’ or the ‘no hopers’.

My grandad that I grew up with passed away through smoking, so I was like ‘I don't want to do that’. I have seen what it can do to people.

My advice to people thinking of smoking would be not to do it because it will definitely hold you back from doing what you want in life and from achieving your goals. It eventually catches up with your health, and it makes you stink and it makes your hands stink, and the house stink. Stinky stink.

I remember shaking someone's hand yesterday who is a hard out smoker. Afterwards I sniffed my hand and it smelt of smoke for about an hour. Girls just shouldn't smoke either because that's not cool.

I think the worst thing about smoking is that it can kill you, but it's not a reality until you get cancer or something like that. It's then that people start to open up their eyes and stop smoking. But you don't want to get to that stage in life. You want to just avoid it now so everything can be cool.

Hello, I am Joel and I work for C4 Music TV. I always tried to avoid smoking when I was young. People who smoked in my eyes were kind of bad. I always remember being scared of those people who smoked. They just looked scary and they were always shorter cos their growth was stunted.

I choose not to smoke because if you do, you are going to kill yourself. My grandfather had lung cancer and my other grandfather died from smoking. Smoking is the number one preventable killer and it’s just not good. It's expensive, it's selfish, and it makes your teeth yellow so you don't have a gleaming smile like myself.

I remember when I was young, my friend and me were walking and we were going ‘let's try smoking’. We got a cigarette off a tramp. I felt so guilty that I cried. I was like 11 or 12 and I told my sister I had just had a cigarette, thinking I was cool. She told my dad and I cried and then vowed never to smoke again.

It's really very obvious why you shouldn’t smoke. Just don't do it. It is just annoying and stupid and pointless, and it is actually not cool.

These days it is more accepted for people not to smoke, but it’s still just as hard when you get the peer pressure.

Peer pressure is a really tough thing to deal with and it affects people in different ways. Not everyone is confident, and especially in NZ, young kids have a lot of pressure on themselves. Maybe they are not good at sport, like me. I had to work really hard to make friends, because NZ is rugby and if you don’t play rugby it is harder to fit in. All those sort of pressures can play on you and you can end up giving in. It is a strong person that can actually survive the peer pressure of being young. It can be far harder to say no to smoking than to jump on board and give it a go.

One thing that I try and get across to young kids when I talk to them is that it is just so obvious to do the norm, to try and be accepted by the cool kids. It is so much more exciting and rewarding to step away from that and do something that other people aren’t. If I saw a group of 10 teenagers and 9 of them were smoking and one wasn’t, I’d go up to that dude and go what’s up with you man, what’s your story?

So I think that yep, you’re always going to feel some kind of pressure to smoke, but it is your decision. Are you going to be a leader or a follower? It’s all up to you.

Because I am often surrounded by second hand, I am sometimes tempted to smoke. But it really comes down to you making that call of ‘do I’ or ‘do I not’ want to start? If you can decide beforehand that you don't want to start then you are way better off.

I think it comes down to why you might want to start smoking in the first place. I know a lot of people do it to feel accepted and I think each of us wants to be accepted in society. But I think it is sad if you have to smoke to do that, and sometimes it has the opposite effect. I have seen people who have just started to smoke and they don't know how to hold the cigarette properly. It is awkward to watch them because they are trying so hard to fit in. I would hate for that to ever be me. It is a weird and sad thing to watch.

I was never in the position where I felt I had to smoke to be cool or fit in, and that is still the case now. I don't want to have to do something just because someone else is doing it. I just want to be myself.

It is more socially acceptable now to say ‘I am smokefree and I really want to work on my fitness and get the most out of life. I don't want to shorten my life. While I want to have a good time in life, I want to be sensible about myself and the people around me.’

If I had any advice to give, it would be that you don't need to smoke to be accepted. If you can get to a point in your life where you can stand upon your own individuality, really be yourself and not care what anyone else thinks about you, then that is one of the coolest places you can ever get to in your life.

We are getting to the point where it is just as cool to be a non-smoker now as it was to be a smoker in the past. You can stick to your guns on that one.

At the time my Mum and Dad were both smokers but they decided to quit because of my allergies, which made a huge difference.

Even now that I have grown up and no longer have asthma I would never smoke. I look at different friends who do and can't see any positives. It's bad for your health and, well, it can kill you! It's expensive, makes you stink and gives you orange teeth – I mean, who wants an orange smile? I am glad I never started and I know I never will. If you haven't tried it, don't bother – take it from me – it's not worth it!

I grew up in a smoking household. My mum smoked a lot. Her friends smoked, but I was used to it so it didn't choke me up like it does today. I tried puffing on one when I was about 14, just to see what the big deal was, but I got a nasty head rush and coughed and spluttered. It wasn't pleasant. My cousin and I even hid out on the farm with various types of weird stuff – grass, tea leaves, orange peel – and we tried to smoke that. Still nothing.

I knew it was expensive to smoke, I knew it wasn't good for you and I knew I didn't like it. I didn't fall for the peer pressure to be 'cool', so thankfully I never started. I'm still biting my nails at 30, so I bet I'd be a serious addict to cigarettes if I started that nasty habit.

I can't stand the smell of smoke now and being around it makes me nauseous and choked up. I find smokers who smoke near non-smokers to be completely rude and selfish. It's a waste of money and it ruins your health. What's the fun in that?

I tried smoking a cigarette when I was 15. Most of my mates smoked so I thought I'd give it a go. I followed the directions of my 'ten-a-day' mate, Craig, and slowly dragged the smoke down... then I coughed uncontrollably for the next four to five minutes. IT WAS HELL. Craig reassured me that this happens to everyone when they first try a smoke. That was enough to make me a non-smoker for life.

I can't understand how someone could have such an unpleasant first experience with smoking and then go back to try it again and again until they do like it. I see friends my age who have been smoking for 10 years or longer and it makes me so pleased I made the choices I did during my teens. Smoking is bad for you.

I've never liked the idea of smoking, it's such a turn off for me. If I see anybody with a cigarette, it automatically makes me cringe! In a way, it's like watching somebody killing themselves! My mum smokes and I hate it, I really want her to stop. It's an addiction, we all know that, and I guess the best way not to get addicted is by not starting in the first place. As a surfer, well, as you would expect, smoking and surfing don't mix! Our lungs are so vital for us surfers, because we do spend a fair bit of time holding our breaths. With any sports it's so important to stay as healthy as possible and take into account what you're putting inside your body. I could never go out with someone who smokes, it's terrible, SO unattractive!

Hi, I'm Vaughan from The Edge. I don't smoke because my cousin's grandad had the lung disease, is it emphysema? He had emphysema and he was dying of it and he had to have an oxygen mask on and tow around an oxygen tank. It was like something out of the movies. It was unreal.

You only need to see an old person die of a smoking related illness. Actually, sometimes people aren't even that old. Then you realise that by smoking, you are pretty much killing yourself. It's just a suicide that takes 60 years.

Not just that. Also the fact that it's detrimental to your health, it's stink, you stink, all the time your clothes stink and then you become immune to the fact that you do stink. Smokers don't even know that they stink.

And the money! Just the money involved is insane. Some people go through a couple of packs a day! It's insane amounts of money. I read once that if you saved all the money over forty years that you spent on smoking, you could buy a Ferrari. And who doesn't want a Ferrari?

When you are a teenager you want to do things that are bad. You want to push the boundaries. And some people have a go at that boundary and smoke, and then become addicted to it. Just primarily because they fell for peer pressure.

When I see a young person smoking, or even a person my age smoking, all I think is 'at some stage you were too weak to say no to peer pressure'. To me it doesn't say 'cool' or 'I'm looking rad, I've got a smoke in my mouth', it primarily says you were too weak to say no.

Some people take up smoking because they think it will be social. Now that you aren't allowed inside, it's the very thing that will cost you your social life.