No Smoking

The second day of Rosh Hashana, I passed by a shul where a few men had congregated outside to have a smoke. I was surprised by the young ages of these men. My parents' generation, I could understand, was unaware of the dangers and therefore can't be faulted for smoking. But, nowadays, the dangers of smoking are well known to all.
This morning, I came across an article The Battle Against Smoking by Rav Dov Ettinger which provides halachic references on the issue. Below is an excerpt from the article.

Before examining specific halachic pronouncements it should be noted that all of the poskim, including those who have avoided making pointed declarations, are opposed to smoking in principle. In Michtav MeEliahu (Part I, pp. 79 and 111) Rav Dessler maintains that smoking is merely a form of tayvah, so strongly fixed in habitual smokers that it distances them from the obvious truth and causes them to cling to delusions and sheker. In Imrei Binah (p. 228) Rav Y. Weinstein also recalls the story of Rav Eliyahu Boruch Kamai, av beis din and ram at Yeshivas Mir. One year when Rosh Hashonoh fell on a Thursday and Friday, on motzei Shabbos he declared that if it was possible to survive three days without smoking it was a sign that he had no real need for cigarettes, and therefore he stopped smoking entirely.
HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt'l, in his approbation for Pe'er Tachas Efer (a short book written against smoking), writes, "The drive to smoke is destructive." HaRav Moshe Feinstein zt'l (Igros Moshe, Yoreh De'ah, Part II, Siman 49; ibid., Choshen Mishpot, Part II, Siman 76) casts smoking in a very negative light both from a moral perspective -- noting that tayvah is the only impetus behind smoking -- and from a halachic perspective -- saying one should definitely try to adopt chumros regarding smoking rather than seeking heteirim, since a clear case of tayvah cannot be considered she'as hadechak.
HaRav Eliashiv shlita, also writing an approbation for the above sefer, adds, "Expert medical opinions warn against the high risk to which smokers expose themselves and those surrounding them."
To read full article, click on the link below.
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5762/korach/KR62osmoking.htm

To see a video of Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky cautioning people on the dangers of smoking, click here.