One look at the former world snooker champion yesterday was enough to turn the most committed puffer off what the man calls "the dreaded weed".
Belfast man Alex Higgins (50), formerly known and loved as the "Hurricane", was in Dublin to announce his plans to sue the tobacco companies that he blames for his smoking-related throat cancer.
"Snooker was adopted by tobacco companies as a vehicle to sell their death, their bloody killing thing," he said, referring to the massive sponsorship within snooker by the cigarette industry.
They had known for years, he added, about the research that proved smoking was damaging to health and they had not informed the public about it. He was "very confident" of winning his case against the companies which produce Benson and Hedges and Embassy cigarettes. He used to smoke "25-30" a day, he said, but gave up three years ago.
It was impossible not to feel a pang for the man who used to mesmerise audiences with his genius at the snooker table, now reduced to reminiscing. "I invented every shot that has ever been played . . . No Alex Higgins, no snooker," he said.
He is scrawny now, his face gaunt and his eyes baggy and tired. He spoke slowly, with the breathless, gravelly voice of a seriously ill old man while looking, in his vulnerability, like a little boy.
Dressed in denim jeans, a cream waistcoat top and blue shirt, he had a red scarf tied around his neck as though to protect his throat.
"I want to pass a message to all the young children and the grownups . . . It's easy to stop smoking, I swear to God . . . And this [the cancer] I've nearly beat. What chance has cancer against me? Cancer can't play snooker, it hasn't got a cue," he said.
He was questioned about - but didn't really deal with - the contradiction that as world champion he benefited from the prize money put up by the companies he now intended to sue. He denied that he knew cigarettes were bad for him. "I didn't know. I left home at 15 and I wasn't the brightest boy, and I just didn't know." He talked about how at one point in his illness he stopped eating and his weight went down to five stone. "I was like somebody from Auschwitz but I came through it," he said.
No amount has been decided yet for the proposed legal action, but Higgins said one of his demands is a public apology from the tobacco companies.
His solicitor, Mr Peter McDonnell, currently represents more than 200 people in cases against the industry. About 6,500 die here every year from smoking-related illnesses. Mr McDonnell said he was confident about his latest client, buoyed up by a landmark judgment in Florida last month when a jury found against the tobacco companies.
Alex Higgins will talk about his addiction to smoking in a BBC television documentary, Tobacco Wars, tonight