Smoking represents today by far the largest preventable cause of death. Data suggest annual premature deaths of 420,000 smokers [1] and of 53,000 passive smokers [2, 3] in the USA alone. A necessary step in the reduction of the smoking epidemic is the use of educational prevention programmes for those at risk of starting smoking, and initiatives to promote smoking cessation for smokers. Althoug...

Initiatives to engage the public in health policy decisions have been widely endorsed and used, yet agreed upon methods for systematically evaluating the effectiveness of these initiatives remain to be developed. Dukhanin, Topazian, and DeCamp have thus developed a useful taxonomy of evaluation criteria derived from a systematic review of published evaluation tools that might serve as the basis...

Trends in current cigarette smoking among high school students in Wisconsin and the United States were examined using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and the Youth Tobacco Survey. Data were analyzed for years 1993 through 2004. Results of the analyses reveal an increasing prevalence in current smoking among high school youth in both Wisconsin and the United states during m...

Without ongoing surveillance systems to assess tobacco product demand and exposure levels, many low and middle income countries monitor smoking via periodic cross-sectional surveys. In this article, we seek to update estimates for the prevalence of adult smoking in Colombia and contribute additional information useful for tobacco control initiatives. Data are from the 2003 Colombian National St...

Pre-cessation reduction is associated with quitting smoking. However, many smokers reduce the amount consumed but may not quit altogether. Using a representative sample of adult current daily smokers, this project explored future intentions of smokers regarding cigarette consumption. This information is important because it can provide a framework within which to plan tobacco cessation initiati...

The history of tobacco control in the twentieth century can be summed up by the phrase 'too little, too late'. The century saw the proliferation of the most deadly form of tobacco use: cigarette smoking. Until the 1970s, no government took serious action to protect its citizens. In fact, probably the most effective global tobacco control 'strategies' to date have not been motivated by health co...

Importance State-specific information about the health burden of smoking is valuable because state-level initiatives are at the forefront of tobacco control. Smoking-attributable cancer mortality estimates are currently available nationally and by cancer, but not by state. Objective To calculate the proportion of cancer deaths among adults 35 years and older that were attributable to cigarett...

The practice of waterpipe smoking (hookah) has rapidly increased in popularity among young adults yet burgeoning research suggests that its use is associated with nicotine dependence and other negative smoking-related health consequences. Moreover, descriptive studies indicate that consumers may hold the belief that hookah smoking is safer than smoking cigarettes. The current study extended pre...