smoking

A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that in spite of being considered non-inhaled forms of smoking, cigar and pipe smoking doubled the risk for developing COPD over those who did not smoke at all.

Stanton Glantz (of the University of California, San Francisco) and colleagues find that the California state tobacco control program is associated not only with reduced smoking, but with reductions in health care costs as well.

A research team led by scientists at MD Anderson Cancer Center report that 2 specific common inherited genetic variations are associated with increased risk of lung cancer for smokers and former smokers. Dr. Amos talks about how the findings are a major step forward in identifying those at high risk for non-small cell lung cancer and for understanding how smoking and genetic factors interact to cause the disease.