Cunningham, JohnSelby, P2015-12-102015-12-100820-3946http://hdl.handle.net/1885/67093Public health initiatives to distribute nicotine replacement therapy free of charge as a means of promoting smoking cessation are ongoing. Are there enough smokers interested in using nicotine replacement therapy to have a substantial impact on the prevalence of smoking if this aid were distributed free to all interested smokers? We conducted a telephone survey of 825 randomly selected daily smokers aged 18 years or older who had smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day at some point in their lives. Overall, 58.9% of the respondents said they would be interested in nicotine replacement therapy if it were offered for free. Of those interested, almost all (93.8%) said that they would use the nicotine replacement therapy to help them quit for good. There were differences in the levels of interest: smokers who intended to quit were more interested in using the nicotine replacement therapy than those who planned to reduce or maintain their smoking.Keywords: adult; article; cigarette smoking; female; health survey; human; major clinical study; male; nicotine replacement therapy; smoking cessation; tobacco dependence; adolescent; attitude to health; behavior; Canada; cross-sectional study; government; health c200810.1503/cmaj.0712412015-12-10