Removing just a little of the danger will remove much of the cool. We can remove much of the daring-do by reporting the health effects more accurately. Smoking doesn't cause these diseases, it simply increases the risk of getting them. Sure, it increases the risk substantially, but there's no guarantee that smoking will lead to a slow, painful death. Everyone knows someone who smoked two packs a day and lived to a ripe old age.
Old age is very uncool among teenagers.
So instead of teaching that smoking causes these diseases, let's be more accurate and say smoking increases your risk of getting them. Removing the coolness factor of annoying parents, authority figures, and busybodies will be more difficult. Parents, talking to your kids about the dangers of smoking is almost an invitation to light up. Fortunately, there are other methods of discouraging your kids from starting or encouraging them to quit. Every teenager knows their parents were never cool, so if you used to smoke in your teens tell your kids about it as often as possible.