Recently, you may have noticed full-page anti-smoking ads in 50 major newspapers as well as anti-smoking commercials on ABC, CBS and NBC TV networks. This campaign is the result of a 1999 ruling by the Justice Department that resulted in a 2006 ruling by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler. It required Altria, Lorillard, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to warn the general public about the dangers of smoking because they had intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive.

Here are some of the court-required statements included in these ads:

—"When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain-that's why quitting is so difficult."

—"Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in adults who do not smoke."

—"Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, severe asthma and reduced lung function."

—"Secondhand smoke kills over 38,000 Americans each year."

These ads were designed to drive home the fact that smoking kills an average of 1,200 Americans a day (438,000 per year) and costs $170 billion in direct adult medical costs and over $156 billion in lost productivity.

If we break down cigarette and cigar use by age, according to 2015 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people over 65 comprise the lowest segment of usage:

—18-24 (13.0 percent)

—25-44 (17.7 percent)

—45-64 (17.0 percent)

—65 and older (8.4 percent)

Sadly, many experts feel that premature death from cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or lung disease is the reason for fewer retirement-age smokers.

When the CDC first started tracking smoking rates, the percentage of older smokers was 18.3, and it took over two decades for it to fall below 15 percent. The fact that the percentage of senior smokers has hovered around 8 percent over the past six years means that there still are millions of smokers who need — or want — to quit smoking but haven't been successful.

That otherwise-healthy group of older smokers has begun turning to e-cigarettes or vaping as a potential replacement for traditional tobacco. A number of critics have pointed out that tobacco companies are now using "the same playbook" to promote a variety e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products that they claim are less harmful alternatives to traditional cigarettes. Cliff Douglas of the American Cancer Society has gone on record to say, "Philip Morris would be delighted for the general public to be very confused about all of these things and buy everything the company sells."

According to the CDC, e-cigarettes now appear to be the preferred way — rather than nicotine gum, lozenges, patches or prescription medicine — to attempt to quit smoking. Smokers make on average 15 attempts before they become genuine ex-smokers. The CDC is currently concerned that smokers will turn to vaping instead of choosing to be entirely nicotine-free.

The Food and Drug Administration had planned to begin regulating e-cigarettes in August, but the date has now been pushed back to 2022. According to Dr. Steven Schroeder, who directs the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, the bottom line is that nonsmokers respond better to both surgery and chemotherapy, and — as so many of us already know — older adults often face either one or both.

Marilyn Murray Willison has had a varied career as a six-time nonfiction author, columnist, motivational speaker and journalist in both the U.K. and the U.S. She is the author of The Self-Empowered Woman blog and the award-winning memoir "One Woman, Four Decades, Eight Wishes." She can be reached at www.marilynwillison.com. To find out more about Marilyn and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.