Smoking and Health

Last update: 7 September 2011,
by Maureen Bell

I've divided this page into three sections. The first provides you with some tips on searching for material on Medline, and the second provides links to other Australian and overseas web resources, including some full text material.

Searching Medline

Remember that Medline has a Thesaurus of terms - MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in Medline. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information where authors may use different terminology for the same concepts.

You will find material on this subject in Medline, but you will need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) terms used to search for the various topics. The term cardiovascular disease has an extensive number of more specific terms associated with it, and you can see these listed in the MeSH database.

MeSH - Nicotine

MeSH - Smoking

MeSH - Smoking Cessation

MeSH - Tobacco Industry

MeSH - Tobacco Smoke Pollution

MeSH - Tobacco Use Disorder

Many topics in MeSH have hierarchies of more specific subcategories or related terms. The indentations in the lists reflect the structure of the hierarchy, and the + signs at the end of terms indicate that there is a further hierarchy of terms not displayed here. Any of these terms can be searched individually, or you can "explode" terms to search sections of the list.

When you search for subjects using MeSH terms from the Medline thesaurus you will also have the option of appending subheadings to narrow the focus of your search.

For a list of the abbreviations used for subheadings in PubMed click here

Try the following search strategy to find articles on mortality and smoking.

PubMed Search Formulation

smoking/mo[majr:noexp] AND english[lang]

The search strategy above uses the subheading mortality "mo"associated with smoking. The section in the square brackets includes majr - which focuses the search on articles where the subject is a major issue in the article, and noexp - which stops the "explosion" of the term and avoids retrieval of articles on marijuana smoking. The search is then limited to articles in English or with English abstracts.

Click here to see how it works. PubMed Search.

Australian Sources

Department of Health and Ageing - Health topic quickview: Tobacco

National Drug Strategy Publications. Tobacco

Quitnow
The Australian Government's web site to help people to quit smoking.

Smoking
Resources from HealthInsite.

Tobacco Control Super Site
This site is maintained by Simon Chapman, associate professor of public health in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney. Tobacco companies is a particularly interesting section of this site. There is a list of links to tobacco companies' sites, and you can see their perspectives on the issue of tobacco use.

Tobacco In Australia
Edited by M M Scollo, and M H Winstanley. Tobacco in Australia: Facts and Issues. Third Edition. Melbourne: Cancer Council Victoria; 2008. A comprehensive review of the major issues in smoking and health in Australia, this publication addresses not only health issues, but issues of promotion, labelling, and economics.

Overseas Sources

Additional Links on ASH's Web Site
ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) is a large anti-smoking organisation. This is a useful list of links from their site.

bmj.com Collected Resources : Smoking
A collection of articles on this subject from the BMJ.

Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction
Clearing the smoke: assessing the science base for tobacco harm reduction / Kathleen Stratton ... [et al.], editors, Committee to Assess the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine. National Academy Press, 2000.

Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group - Our reviews

Coffin Nails: The Tobacco Controversy in the 19th Century
HarpWeek has compiled this 50-plus year history of tobacco controversy and criticism as shown in the editorials, articles, news briefs, cartoons, illustrations, poetry, and advertisements of Harper’s Weekly.

The Economics of Tobacco Policy
By David Collins and Helen Lapsley By David Collins and Helen Lapsley, this is a Tobacco Control Factsheet. TCRC-UICC Tobacco-Control Factsheets are a joint project of the Tobacco-Control Resource Center and the International Union Against Cancer.

Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation
Richard J. Bonnie, Kathleen Stratton, and Robert B. Wallace, Editors, Committee on Reducing Tobacco Use: Strategies, Barriers, and Consequences. Washington D.C., National Academies Press, 2007.

Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
From the University of California, San Francisco, and online library of over 20 million documents, which relate to scientific research, manufacturing, marketing, advertising and sales of cigarettes, among other topics, generally dating from the 1950's to recent years.

N C H S - FASTATS - Smoking
From the National Center for Health Statistics in the United States.

QuitNet - A Free Resource To Quit Smoking
A joint project of Join Together, a program of the Boston University School of Public Health, and the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.

Report of the Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health
London, The Stationery Office, 1998.

Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence
Committee on Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Acute Coronary Events; Institute of Medicine. Washington D.C., National Academies Press, 2010.

Smoking and public health: a compendium of smoking behaviour initiatives that address socially disadvantaged populations
Evidence Review from NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence), January 2007.

Surgeon General's Reports Related to Tobacco
Over the years a number of reports have been produced on smoking and related issues by the Office of the Surgeon General in the United States.

TIPS - CDC's Tobacco Information and Prevention Source
From the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the United States.

Tobacco Cessation - You Can Quit Smoking Now!
Resources from the Office of the Surgeon General in the United States.

Tobacco Control Archives
Sponsored by UCSF Library & Center for Knowledge Management, Department of Archives & Special Collections, the Tobacco Control Archives purpose is to collect, preserve, and provide access to papers, unpublished documents and electronic resources relevant to tobacco control issues primarily in California. However there are links to some international resources as well.

UW-Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention
Resources from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

WHO: The Tobacco Atlas
Produced by the World Health Organization in 2002, as part of the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI).