Smoking News

Teens exposed to secondhand smoke have measurably thicker arteries than adolescents who are not exposed, suggesting that for children "even a little exposure to tobacco smoke may be harmful for blood vessels," according to researcher Katariina Kallio of the University of Turku in Finland.

Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ, according to a study of over 20,000 Israeli military recruits. Dr. Mark Weiser and colleagues from Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer found that young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores 7.5 points lower than non-smokers.

Telling people about the benefits of quitting is more likely to help smokers break the habit than scaring them with the dangers of continuing, researchers found. Callers to a tobacco quitline were nearly twice as likely to stop in the short term when they got positive messages rather than negative ones in a randomized trial led by Benjamin A. Toll, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine.

New research provides evidence that the average cigarette is crawling with germs, including bacteria that cause respiratory disease. But as one spokesman for a tobacco company pointed out, the authors of the new study aren't sure what, if any, hazard the germs pose. And exposure to bacteria is nothing new: Microbes surround us every day of our lives. Still, the findings raise plenty of questions.

People who have asthma and who also smoke could reverse some of the damage to their lungs by saying no to cigarettes, new Dutch research suggests. "We found that exposure to cigarette smoke appears to increase the thickness of the epithelium, or lining, of the airways in the lung," Martine Broekema, lead author of the study, said in a news release from the American Thoracic Society. "This may be the underlying cause of the fact that smoking asthma patients experience more asthma symptoms."

Cigarette cravings increase the likelihood that a person will lose their train of thought while performing a cognitive task. Craving interrupts meta-awareness, which is the ability to assess one's own thoughts, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh.

Smokers trail nonsmokers in well-being, regardless of income bracket, according to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data collected in 2008 and 2009. In every income group, smokers are less likely than nonsmokers to be "thriving" by at least 12 percentage points.

Texting, besides dominating communication in the 21st century, may be good for helping stop the habit of smoking. An experiment at the University of Auckland in New Zealand revealed an easier way to quit smoking may be right at your fingertips.  “It’s tactile,” said Tom Hall, director of education and training programs for UCF’s Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Programming. “Smokers are used to doing things with their hands.”

Switching to so-called light cigarettes won't improve your health or help you quit smoking, experts say. Researchers led by Hilary Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that smokers who switched from their usual brand to a "light," "low-tar" or "mild" product were half as likely to quit smoking than those who stuck with their normal smokes.

Women who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to report having children with behavioral problems, and researchers think the reason could be fetal brain damage, the BBC reported Nov. 3.