In October of this year, CVS pharmacy will pull all tobacco products off of its shelves.

It has been a long time coming and for a very good reason: tobacco should have never been sold in a health pharmacy setting in the first place.

The health dangers of tobacco span back many decades and finally removing it from store shelves is a welcome sigh of relief.

CVS pharmacy provides flu shots, vaccines and a plethora of hygiene products to its customers. Studies have scientifically shown that smoking and chewing tobacco causes cancer, other major health related problems and often times, death.

Cigarettes and health care provisions quite simply, don’t go hand in hand, especially in the same retail setting.

When tobacco is removed from its store shelves, it will hopefully trigger other major health related stores and retailers to do the same. Such a large chain hasn’t made such a bold move since Target did back in 1996, where they did the same thing CVS plans to do this year. The company expects to lose billions from pulling cigarettes, but it will only be a small dent in its 123 billion yearly earnings.

CVS pharmacy hopes to make up for the lost revenue with a smoking cessation program that is planned to start this spring.

The goal is to get half a million Americans to stop smoking.

“This is the kind of offering we can bring to clients like insurance plans and companies,” said Helena Foulkes, executive vice president of CVS. “Many of which will pay for such a program.”

The company is aware of the losses they will incur and are more than willing to take the risk in order to revamp their image.

Even though pulling tobacco from its store shelves is a good sign, it won’t put an end to smoking. Smoking is an addiction and getting people to stop is incredibly tough.

However, making it harder to find somewhere to buy cigarettes is a nice step towards letting those who want to start smoking or are just beginning to smoke know that it’s a bad idea. Hopefully this will be a deterrent that will help those that already smoke and want to quit, from buying cigarettes with such ease.

Whatever effect this will have on future generations will be a significant milestone in the fight against tobacco. Tobacco’s aggressive addiction and the toll that it takes on the human body is costing a huge debt in health insurance and medical bills along with countless lives.

CVS pharmacy has made the right choice and I commend them for taking the next stop toward battling tobacco and cigarettes.