Smoking and Health

Last update: 4 September 2007,
by Maureen Bell

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

Australia's National Tobacco Campaign: Evaluation report volume one: Every cigarette is doing you damage
Prepared by the Research and Evaluation Committee of the National Expert Advisory Committee on Tobacco. Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, May 1999.

Australia's National Tobacco Campaign: Evaluation report volume two: Every cigarette is doing you damage
Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, May 2000.

Australia's National Tobacco Campaign: Evaluation report volume three: Every cigarette is doing you damage
Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, 2004.

National Drug Strategy - National Tobacco Strategy Publications

Smoking cessation interventions: Review of evidence and implications for best practice in health care settings
The review collates and synthesises, according to National Health and Medical Research Council standards, the available evidence on the effectiveness and potential public health benefit of smoking interventions delivered by health professionals, including the relative effectiveness of the different methods available.

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 Resources
From the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing site, this page contains a list of tobacco related links and tobacco related material.

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.

American Lung Association -- Tobacco Control -- Quitting Smoking Index

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

Buying Influence, Selling Death: How Big Tobacco's Campaign Contributions Harm Public Health
A Report by Common Cause, The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, The American Heart Association And The American Lung Association, March 14, 2001.

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 Review Group

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.

Economics of Tobacco Control
From the World Bank, this web site on the economics of tobacco control provides information, analyses, reviews and links to help researchers and policymakers and to assist governments to choose and implement effective tobacco control measures.

Health Care Information Resources -- Smoking Links
Some useful links (with a Canadian focus) from McMaster University Health Sciences Library.

The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General 2004
The full report is available here with accompanying documentation and a database on the health consequences of smoking.

Help for Smokers: Ideas to Help You Quit
From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the United States.

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.

Smoking and public health (evidence briefing)
From NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) in the U.K., May 2004.

Smoking Kills: A White Paper on Tobacco
London, The Stationery Office, 1998.

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 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.

Tobacco Free Initiative Geneva Hearings : An Introduction to the WHO enquiry on tobacco industry influence

Tobacco Use Behavior Research, Cancer Prevention and Control Program, UCSD
From the University of California at San Diego, this site contains reports and data relating to tobacco use in California.

TobaccoPedia - The Online Tobacco Encyclopedia
From UICC GLOBALink, the International Tobacco Control Network.

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).