A toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke, and may represent a second way in which smoking delays bone healing, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society in San Francisco.

Although smoke free policies have been introduced at all NHS Hospital Trusts a study by researchers at The University of Nottingham has found that smoking is still prevalent, even by staff in uniform.

Smoking is a known risk factor for respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, but genes also play a significant role in its development, according to researchers in Sweden, who studied more than 40,000 Swedish twins to determine the extent to which behavior, environment and genes each play a role ion the development of chronic bronchitis.

Smoking is on the rise again amongst 15 year old boys after dropping off for several years.

Everyone has known for decades that that smoking can kill, but until now no one really understood how cigarette smoke causes healthy lung cells to become cancerous.

French researchers announced a striking 15% decrease in admissions of patients with myocardial infarction to emergency wards since the public ban on smoking came into effect in restaurants, hotels and casinos in France last January.

Queen’s University scientists have determined how much the risk of a type of vision loss in over 65s is due to gene variation and smoking.

UQ pharmacy graduate Dr Selena Bartlett is starting clinical trials of a new drug that could potentially curb addictions such as smoking, drinking, gambling even depression.

Pregnant women who suffer from the high risk condition pre-eclampsia — which leads to the death of hundreds of babies every year — are putting the lives of their unborn children at significantly increased risk if they continue to smoke during pregnancy.

India is in the midst of a catastrophic epidemic of smoking deaths, which is expected to cause about one million (10 lakh) deaths a year during the 2010s – including one in five of all male deaths and one in 20 of all female deaths at ages 30-69. On average, male bidi smokers lose about six years of life, female bidi smokers lose about eight years and male cigarette smokers lose about ten years.

The proverbial cigarette after a Valentine’s Day snuggle can prematurely end a love affair, as new evidence emerges that a common defect in a gene significantly increases a smoker’s risk of an early heart attack. Researchers say that as much as 60 to 70 percent of the population has a gene defect that delivers a one-two punch to smokers:

It is not a slumber party getting a good night’s sleep if you are a smoker.