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| Web Pages |
| ACSH: Tobacco |
| The American Council on Science and Health has been a leader in restoring scienctific fact and context to health issues, both in exposing overstated and understated risks. This page covers tobacco, including what the warning label doesn't tell you. |
| Smoking Does Not Protect Against Dementia or Alzheimer's Disease |
| Contrary to suggestions from previous research, this study of over 34,000 subjects found no effect of smoking on senility or Alzheimer's. The previous suggestions that it did came from flawed studies, say the authors. |
| Smoking's Deadly Effects |
| Statistics don't tell the whole story of tobacco disease and death. That's why PBS is running a program on Pam Laffin, a woman who tells her own story of emphysema caused by tobacco products. The story of how she got started smoking, how she discovered she had the disease, and how she lives her live now with one lung, is more compelling sometimes than any amount of statistics. |
| Zep's Why Quit Smoking site |
| Personal stories of people who died from cigarette smoking. |
| Spinal cord injury: Smoking and SCI |
| For SCI survivors who smoke there's even more bad news and more ill health effects than general population. |
| World Health Organization: A Global Status Report |
| Broken down by country. Thorough, yet succinct. 1997 data. |
| The Irreversible Health Effects of Cigarettes |
| Pamphlet from ACSH. Quitting greatly reduces risks, but some effects of smoking are permanent. |
| Larynx Cancer and Smoking |
| Doctor explains how his patients who smoke get invasive cancer of the voice box (larynx); images and video of a biopsy. |
| All about tobacco facts, smoking cancer, epidemiology and quitting |
| The facts on tobacco products and cancer of the larynx, lung, and mouth, emphysema, epidemology, and how to quit; information and graphic pictures from a Kentucky physician. |
| Smoking and Respiratory Disease |
| Information from the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, Australia. Factsheet, diagrams, and basic information. |
| Lung Cancer and Cigarette Smoking |
| Thoracic surgeon Fred Grannis MD provides smokers, lung cancer patients and their families with information on cigarettes, smoking, cessation, and lung cancer risk, diagnosis, and treatment. Webpage design by one of his patients. |
| South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services: Tobacco Use |
| "Tobacco use is the nation's deadliest addiction. Smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Over 400,000 Americans die every year from tobacco use. More people die from tobacco than from AIDS, car accidents, alcohol, suicides, homicides, fires, and illegal drugs combined." Summary of the effects of tobacco use. |
| Ex-Smokers May Have Irreversible Damage To Arteries |
| New research from one of the most comprehensive studies indicates that while most risks subside after quitting, some damage is not reversible. |
| WHO: The Tobacco Epidemic |
| The World Health Organization (WHO) summarizes the situation worldwide: "each year, tobacco causes about 3.5 million deaths throughout the world; this will increase to 10 million annual deaths during the 2020s, with seven million of these deaths occurring in developing countries. Half of these unnecessary deaths are occurring in middle age (35-69), robbing those killed of around 22 years of life." |
| Maternal Smoking and Infant Birth Weight |
| Slides from college lecture outline the effects. |
| Easy Rider Ain't So Easy: A Living With COPD Story |
| I am a 50 year old man, diagnosed with COPD -- severe emphysema, chronic bronchitis and a moderate asthmatic component. I started smoking when I was about 14 years old..." |
| Cigarette Anyone? |
| Firsthand accounts of what it is like to live with the diseases caused by cigarettes. |
| Infofax - Cigarettes and Other Nicotine Products |
| NIH short summary of nicotine effects. |
| Does Tobacco Use Cause Other (non-malignant) Disease? |
| Tobacco use actually claims more lives via tobacco-caused diseases other than cancer. |
| WebMD/Lycos Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease: Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis |
| Causes, diagnosis, and treatment. |
| How to prevent heart disease |
| Concise factsheet explaining how to prevent heart disease, available for downloading in Adobe acrobat format. |
| Face the Faces |
| The human toll of tobacco, from INFACT. Started in response to a tobacco executive's statement that the people who die each year from tobacco are just a "computer-generated number." This site shows some of the people who are dead or dying of diseases caused by tobacco. Pictures are accompanied by text written by friends and family. |
| Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost -- US |
| Cigarette Smoking-Attributable Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost -- United States, 1990. CDC analysis. |
| Katlyn's Page |
| "I am 11 years old and my mother has emphysema from smoking. Please listen to me - what it's like to have a sick Mom". A story about tobacco victims who don't smoke. |
| Meds.com: Lung Cancer Library |
| Both physician and patient versions of information sheets on smoking, secondhand smoke, lung cancer, metastases, clinical trials, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and short topics. The facts. |
| Smoking and injuries |
| Research shows that cigarette smoking is a risk factor for exercise-related injuries. |
| BBC News: Grim toll of smoking |
| More than 122,000 British smokers will die prematurely in the year 2000 from a smoking-related disease; article explains. |
| Tobacco Use: United States, 1900-1999 |
| From the Cancer Network, a survey of smoking trends and their effects during the 20th century. |
| Tobacco Mortality |
| Factsheet; all sources cited. |
| Smokers Get Ill Sooner, Study Says |
| Statistics Canada analysis shows that cigarettes and tobacco products not only kill the customer, they also cause debilitating illnesses along the way, such as bronchitis, asthma and high blood pressure. |
| Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease |
| Concise summary of effects of smoking on the heart, blood vessels, and brain. |
| Tobacco BBS Health Information Page |
| Annotated collection of links on health effects of firsthand and secondhand smoking, spit tobacco, quitting. |
| Smoking Damage |
| From the Australian National Tobacco Campaign, a concise outline of the different ways that cigarettes damage the body. |
| Where There's Smoking, There's Fire |
| One-third of all fatal household fires in Massachusetts began with a cigarette according this MASSPIRG report. Features map of 1500 cigarette-related fires and assesses the cost. |
| Fire Injuries, Disasters, and Costs from Cigarettes and Cigarette Lights fires |
| Scientific paper estimates the injuries, deaths, and costs from smoking-attributable files. |
| Smoking can Lead to Blindness |
| Brief report on evidence of a link between smoking and age-related macular degeneration. |
| Facts About Nicotine and Tobacco Products |
| From NIH, brief presentation of effects of nicotine and tobacco products. |
| Smoking and Health Database |
| CDC collection of documents including reports, health effects. |
| Risks of Dying From Smoking |
| Slide presentation outlines individual risks, social trends. |
| World Tobacco Victims Memorial |
| A memorial devoted to victims of tobacco products. |
| Active and Passive Tobacco Exposure: A Serious Pediatric Health Problem |
| Report from the American Heart Association. Effects of firsthand and secondhand smoke on young people: hearts, lungs, low birth weight, infant mortality, respiratory infections. |
| Costs and Other Consequences of Tobacco |
| CDC pamphlet outlines costs and diseases caused by tobacco, both to the customer (from smoking) and the public (from secondhand smoke). |
| Smoking Increases Anxiety |
| Smoking is supposed to calm the nerves, but researchers have found evidence that it might have the opposite effect. BBS News article on recent research. |
| The Burden of Illness From Tobacco |
| Summary in the form of a FAQ, with answers to such questions as: how do we know that an agency (such as tobacco) can cause disease? What range of diseases does tobacco cause? |
| Prostate Cancer and Smoking |
| Slides from a college lecture discusses the association. |
| Health Effects of Smoking |
| Bibliography of research. |
| Smoking of Tobacco |
| Discussion, graphics, and analysis of tobacco use, disease, and death. |
| Specimen 156.9: Lung: Emphysema |
| From a library of medical images, a lung with emphysema ("smoker's lung"). |
| Mortality Attributable to Tobacco Use in Canada, 1994 and 1996 |
| Using data from the National Population Health Survey and the Canadian Mortality Database, estimates national and regional smoking-attributable deaths for 1994 and 1996. |
| Smoking |
| Short description by a doctor of the effects of smoking on health and quality of life. |
| Smoking Caused Disability |
| Smoking not only shortens life, it increases number of years of disability. This research analysis estimates how much increased disability is caused by smoking. |
| Quality of Life and Smoking |
| Most smoking studies address specific health, morbidity, and mortality outcomes. Few studies have examined the effect of smoking and smoking cessation on quality of life. This collects a few such studies. |
| Nicotine Addiction |
| Concise factsheet. |
| Man Learned Firsthand One Effect of Smoking |
| Tobacco products (both cigaretets and spit tobacco) cause Buergers disease, which "plugs up your arteries and veins"; this is the story of a 21 year old who lost his left leg from it. |
| Smoking and Impotence |
| Brief article on causes of impotence. |
| Scots Tobacco Death Toll Studied |
| Scotland's title as Europe's lung cancer capital has come under the spotlight at a major anti-smoking conference. |
| OncoLink: Smoking and Cancer |
| Links compiled by OncoLink. |
| Smoking and Injuries: An Overview |
| Research concludes that smoking may be an independent risk factor for thermal, motor vehicle, occupational, and other injuries. |
| Smoking and Quality of Life |
| Research summarizes health-related quality of life of never smokers, ex-smokers, and light, moderate, and heavy smokers. |
| Most Cancer Is Made, Not Born |
| Recent research shows that most cancer is caused by environmental exposure to carcinogens, not from preprogrammed genes; smoking is the single-most important avoidable cause of cancer and is directly responsible for 30 percent of all cases. |
| Worldwide Trends in Tobacco Consumption and Mortality |
| WHO report outlines effects of tobacco globally, identifies trends. |
| Health Effects of Active Smoking |
| Complete book chapter on health effects of cigarettes. |
| Preventing Heart Disease - Smoking |
| Short section on smoking and the hart. |
| Study: Smoking Doubles Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer's disease |
| Largest and most recent study indicates that smokers are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. |
| Quitting Really Does Lower Lung Cancer risk |
| CDC measures reduced lung cancer as a result of California's reduced smoking. |
| Other Health Problems |
| From cataracts to diabetes, from osteoporosis to skin disorders, the other health effects of tobacco products. |
| Cigarettes Cause Heart Disease in Young People |
| Resent research finds that teen-agers and young adults who smoke have three times the level of plaque in a major artery as those who don't smoke. |
| Tobacco Does Not Alleviate Stress But Actually Increase It |
| Research evidence is the apparent relaxing effect of smoking only reflects the reversal of the tension and irritability that develop during nicotine depletion. |
| Smoking and Disease, Ash-UK basic facts #2 |
| Factsheet uses UK numbers to demonstrate health effects of smoking. |
| Smoking Statistics: Illness and Death |
| Concise factsheet from ASH-UK boils it all down: what cigarettes do to the customer. |
| Smoking and Cancer |
| ASH-UK factsheet covers the difference cancers caused by smoking and tobacco. |
| Smoking and Respiratory Disease |
| ASH-UK Factsheet on smoking and lung cancer, COPD, pneumonia. |
| Smoking, the Heart, and Circulation |
| ASH-UK Factsheet on smoking and chronic heart disease, arterial disease, aneurysms, vascular disease, and stroke. |
| How Smoking Affects The Way You Look |
| ASH-UK factsheet covers how smoking affects the skin, body shape, and weight. |
| Smoking: The Health Effects |
| Smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers. Half of all smoking deaths are in middle age. Article from the BBC news summarizes. |
| Nicotine Addiction Can Start Within A Few Days And After Just A Few Cigarettes |
| Recent research shows that cigarette products cause addiction much faster than was previously believed, in just a few doses. |
| Smoking May Lead to Anxiety Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults |
| Recent research shows that tobacco products may cause anxiety, panic attacks and fear of leaving home. |
| Montana: Deaths Up from Lung Cancer |
| Doctor reports "it's just a relentless stream of incurable cancers" resulting from a surge in smoking by women during the 1970s. |
| The Connection Between Smoking and Heart Disease |
| What cigarettes and other tobacco products do to the heart and arteries; how they cause hypertension, stroke, and heart disease. |
| The Whole Truth About Smoking |
| New research find that the tobacco industry does a good job in deceiving the public about the full health risks of smoking; a rundown of 6 myths about smoking and the facts. |
| Smoking Increases Skin Cancer Risk |
| Tobacco products triple the risk of developing a common form of skin cancer, according to a new study. |
| Tobacco, Colorectal Cancer, and Adenomas the evidence. |
| Another cancer now known to be caused by smoking. |
| American Heart Association: Cigarette Smoking And Cardiovascular Diseases |
| Cigarettes are the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United State. Most of those deaths are from heart disease, not cancer. The facts from the AHA. |
| Paternal Smoking and Cancer among Children of Nonsmoking Mothers |
| Scientific paper finds paternal smoking before conception increases risk of the children getting cancer, particularly acute leukemia and lymphoma. |
| HOT Program |
| Hazards of Tobacco (HOT) video; requires RealPayer. Features speakers who've undergone surgical removal of their larynxes, who demonstrate one of tobacco's effects. |
| The Hurt Never Goes Away |
| Over 400,000 Americans die each year due to tobacco use. COST has provided a way for the survivors to express themselves, share their pain. |
| Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure: Which one is Worse? |
| Although public and medical attention focuses on fetal cocaine exposure, the epidemiological evidence suggests fetal nicotine exposure does more damage. |
| Premature Skin Wrinkling And Cigarette Smoking |
| Recent research on how tobacco products cause face wrinkles in young people. |
| Tobacco May Be a Cause of Mental Illness |
| Article summarizes increasing evidence from larger research studies that tobacco products cause anxiety, depression, phobias, and alcohol and drug dependence. |
| Smoking May Be a Cause of Some Psychiatric Disorders |
| New studies suggest that cigarettes are a cause of some psychiatric disorders, including common conditions such as depression and anxiety. |
| Smoking Increase Risk of Alzheimer's Disease |
| Recent research finds that tobacco products increase Alzheimer's disease on some populations, but have no effect on other populations. |
| Smoking and Breast Cancer |
| Recent research shows an association between smoking and breast cancer. |
| Mortality from Smoking in Developed Countries 1950-2000 |
| Latest edition of massive tome; content in PDF format. |
| Mayo Clinic: Effects of Cigarette Smoking |
| Concise rundown of what tobacco products do the customers and the public. |
| Cigarette Smoking-Attributable Morbidity --- United States, 2000 |
| Most reports focus on how many people are killed by tobacco products; this report estimates how much disease cigarettes cause: tobacco products give more than 8.6 million Americans serious diseases every year. |
| Smoking Deaths Not Overstated, Re-Analysis Shows |
| Refuting claims by the tobacco industry that death estimates from smoking are inflated, the American Medical Association re-analyzes the data. |
| American Cancer Society - Cancer Statistics |
| Facts and figures, available in pdf format. |
| webmd.com - Yet Another Reason to Put That Cigarette Down |
| Cigarettes are the leading cause of an infection that can cause severe pneumonia or meningitis. |
| WebMD: Smoking Cessation |
| Effects of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Some tips for quitting. |
| Dying of Cancer, She Used Her Last Days to Warn Kids |
| At age 42, Barb Tarbox used her last few months of life to go on a speaking tour of Canada schools, to tell them what it's like to be dying of cancer caused by cigarettes. |
| He Wanted You to Know |
| Article from the St. Petersburg Times, Florida. Bryan Curtis started smoking at 13, never thinking that 20 years later cigarettes would kill him and leave his wife and children alone. Half of all tobacco deaths are people aged 35 to 69; this is one person's story. |
| Smoking and Diabetes |
| Facts from the American Diabetes Association. |
| Oralcancerfoundation.org - The Tobacco Connection |
| Discusses how certain tobacco products greatly increase risks of contracting oral cancer. |
| NCI: What You Need To Know About Lung Cancer |
| Pamphlet format. Covers the disease, who's at risk, recognizing symptoms, diagnosing lung cancer, the stages of the disease, treatment, side effects. |
| Health Effects On the Unborn Baby |
| Concise summary of effects of firsthand and secondhand exposure to tobacco products on the unborn. |
| Just the Facts |
| Very short factsheet on health effects of cigarettes and other tobacco products. |
| Cigarettes and Asbestos |
| A short summary of the facts. Site is run by attorneys. |
| Smoking and Stroke: A Caustive Role |
| All tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, cause stroke. |
| Stroke Risk Increases With Every Cigarette Smoked |
| Recent research finds that cigarettes cause all three kinds of stroke, and the more cigarettes, the more strokes. |
| Smoking and Reproductive Life |
| 70 page medical report finds that smoking causes impotence, infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects. |