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Blowing the Lid Off of Tobacco and Heart Health: A WHO Tobacco and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Knowledge Summary

Tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure are responsible for 1.9 million avoidable deaths from coronary heart disease, or CHD, every year. That is approximately 21% of total CHD deaths. And yet, in many countries, the links between tobacco use and heart disease remain poorly understood or largely ignored. Findings from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey…

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What does the experimental evidence say about whether e-cigarettes help people quit smoking?

More than half of U.S. smokers attempt to quit each year. More and more, these quit attempts have involved the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), such as e-cigarettes. Unlike pharmaceutical nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, ENDS are not approved by any medicines regulator around the world as smoking cessation devices. Many types of…

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What do we know about tobacco use and COVID-19?

There has been a great deal of discussion in the news media about the potential relationship between COVID-19 and tobacco use, including smoking and vaping.  We address some of the most asked questions here. Does smoking increase the likelihood of contracting COVID-19? There isn’t yet direct evidence that a history of smoking makes an individual…

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Lung Health: The Focus of World No Tobacco Day 2019

Every year on the last day in May, World No Tobacco Day is observed as an occasion to take action against tobacco. Every year, the WHO leads the selection of a new theme for the day’s campaigns to keep the messaging fresh and to demonstrate the breadth of issues that get swept up into the…