Laura Shroyer is a smoker.

At 40-years-old, the mother of three has quit smoking four times in her life. For each pregnancy, Shroyer stopped cold turkey. The fourth time, she quit to donate a kidney to her husband.

But eventually, the habit pulled her back.

“It’s always been easy to quit for somebody else, like when I had my kids,” Shroyer said. “I know all the science behind it. My doctors have shown me statistics and studies. They’ve told me I should stop. My kids want me to stop. My husband wants me to stop. I want to quit.”

The stats are troubling. According to the World Health Organization, the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people around the world each year. Despite claims of “risk reduction” in smokeless forms of tobacco, WHO warns that all forms of tobacco are harmful and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco. Smoking is responsible for roughly 85 percent of all cases of lung cancer, according to WHO.

A new study published by The Lance Public Health journal found that rapid action to eliminate smoking globally could significantly increase life expectancy and prevent millions of premature deaths by 2050.

The study, one of the first aimed to assess the impact of a tobacco-free generation, focused on data about cancer cases and deaths from 185 countries.

In fact, the modelling study in the Lancet found that banning the sale of tobacco to people born between 2006 and 2010 could prevent around 1.2 million deaths from lung cancer by the end of the century.

Shroyer said she started smoking at age 13. Both her parents smoked. Almost her entire family smoked and her friends smoked. It seemed inevitable that she, too, would smoke and so that practice has led to a pack and half per week habit.

“I don’t hate the taste, but I also don’t enjoy the taste,” Shroyer said of smoking. “It’s something to do. I find that I tend to do it to give myself a break. It’s mostly mental.”

It is also difficult for Shroyer to envision how smoking has taken a toll on her health as she feels “pretty healthy” and “I don’t get out of breath.” The only time she feels the effects from smoking, Shroyer says, is the recovery time it takes her to get over being sick from a cold.

Several countries and organizations around the world have set goals to reduce smoking prevalence to less than 5 percent in the coming years. Men could expect an increase in life expectancy by about one year, according to the study in the Lancet, while women might see an increase of 0.2 years.

To achieve that goal, WHO says tobacco addition must be fought with global cooperation and implementation of proven tobacco control policies.

WHO recommends key measures to reduce the demand for tobacco through the continued use of hard-hitting anti-tobacco mass media campaigns, bans on tobacco advertising, cost-effective tobacco taxes to curb use, and more help for those who want to quit.

It’s a goal that Shroyer wants to embrace.

“I want to quit, but I don’t want to, ultimately,” Shroyer confessed. “Not right now. But I am worried I will regret that later.”