More U.S. teens use e-cigarettes, traditional cigarettes and marijuana together, posing greater risks to their health and behavior than if they used only one substance, a new study finds.

Called "triple users," this group score high on a profile of psychosocial risk, which includes fighting, risky sexual behavior and behaviors such as not wearing seat belts, according to lead researcher T...

A specimen cup full of bloody urine.

Decaying feet that sport blackened, rotting toes -- some already amputated.

A pale boy with dark circles under his eyes, drawing breath through an oxygen mask.

Around 179,000 deaths in the United States might have been prevented over the past decade if smokers had been forced to confront such images every time they reached for a pack of cig...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced that it had rejected the applications of nearly a million electronic cigarettes and related products.

But it also delayed a decision on the fate of the leading vape product brand, Juul, drawing an outcry from anti-vaping groups.

Juul products will remain on the market for now, more than 10 years after e-cigarettes first be...

Women smokers puff fewer cigarettes than men but have more trouble quitting, French researchers report.

"Our findings highlight the need to provide smoking cessation interventions tailored to the needs of women," said Ingrid Allagbe, a doctoral student at the University of Burgundy, who led the research.

The study included nearly 38,000 smokers (about 43% women) aged 18 and older in...

The arteries of young people who drink stiffen sooner in their lives, which could increase their risk for heart disease and stroke later on, a British study reports.

People's arteries naturally become less elastic with age, but certain factors -- including alcohol and tobacco use -- can speed up the process. This study included more than 1,600 people in the United Kingdom. Their alcohol u...

While breathing in secondhand smoke is known to harm kids' lungs, new research suggests that children whose parents smoked are also more prone to developing rheumatoid arthritis later in life.

"Our findings give more depth and gravity to the negative health consequences of smoking in relation to [rheumatoid arthritis], one of the most common autoimmune diseases," said lead author Dr. Kazu...

Young, healthy adults who try vaping for the first time may experience an immediate reaction that can harm cells and lay the groundwork for disease, according to a new study.

Just 30 minutes of vaping can increase oxidative stress, which occurs when there is an imbalance between free radicals (molecules that damage cells) and antioxidants that fight them, researchers said.

"Just lik...

Gangrene. Throat cancer. A newborn on a feeding tube.

Gruesome warning images like those on cigarette packs do indeed scare smokers, but they should be combined with other anti-smoking measures, a new study finds.

These kinds of graphic warning labels were approved by U.S. lawmakers in 2009, but implementation has been stalled until legal challenges to the law by the tobacco industr...

A kind of 'zap' to the brain -- a technique called noninvasive brain stimulation -- may help hardcore smokers cut back, a new research review suggests.

Nicotine can trigger changes in the brain that make it hard to quit, so researchers have been looking for ways to use noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques to counter abnormal brain activity caused by nicotine addiction.

In...

Kids who are around people who use marijuana may be at risk for more colds and respiratory infections due to secondhand smoke, according to a new study.

In a survey of 1,500 parents and caregivers, those who regularly smoked or vaped marijuana reported more respiratory viruses among their children in the preceding year, compared to parents who did not smoke tobacco or marijuana.

"Th...

In a finding that confirms healthy habits make for healthy hearts, new research shows that smokers and obese people must have their clogged arteries cleared at much younger ages than nonsmokers or people who are a normal weight.

It found that angioplasty and/or stenting to widen coronary arteries and restore blood flow had to be performed in smokers nearly a decade sooner than in nonsmoke...

Smoking cigarettes or using other tobacco products increases heart risks, but that doesn't stop some Americans with a history of heart problems, new research finds.

Many continue to smoke after having a heart attack, heart failure or stroke even though they are aware of the risk.

Nearly 30% of adults with a history of these heart problems smoked when a five-year study began in 2013....

The health of your lungs may have a lot to do with the size of your bank account, a new, large study indicates.

The finding follows a six-decade look at lung disease risk among more than 215,000 American children and adults.

In general, poorer Americans continue to have worse lung health than their wealthier peers. In some cases, the gap between rich and poor is widening.

A ban on flavored vaping products in San Francisco may have increased high school students' use of conventional cigarettes, according to a new study.

In 2018, voters in the city overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure banning the sale of flavored tobacco products.

An analysis of 2011-2019 data on high school students younger than 18 found that before the ban was implemented, past 3...

Though some think that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes, Canadian research suggests it could raise the risk of developing asthma or having asthma attacks for teens and adults.

"Emerging research really suggests that vaping may actually worsen preexisting health conditions such as asthma," said study author Teresa To, senior scientist in the Child Health Eval...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, a move that the agency has tried before and one that public health experts and civil rights groups have pushed for years.

Menthol cigarettes have been marketed aggressively to Black Americans for decades: About 85% of Black smokers use menthol brands, the FDA said, and research shows menthol cigarettes...

Raising the legal age for buying tobacco is effective in cutting teen smoking rates, a new study shows.

Researchers compared teen and young adult smoking patterns before and three years after a 2016 California law that increased the legal age for tobacco sales from 18 to 21.

The University of California, Davis team found that the "T21" law led to a greater decrease in daily smoking ...

So, you're trying desperately to quit smoking, using e-cigarettes while still using traditional cigarettes. Sound like a good idea?

Maybe not, according to a new study that shows that combining vaping with smoking raises the risk for respiratory wheeze and cough.

"To help people quit smoking, FDA-approved medications, such as the nicotine patch or the medication varenicline [brand ...

Americans were living shorter lives and dying at a significantly higher rate than the citizens of wealthy European countries even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, a new study reports.

The United States suffered more than 400,000 excess deaths in 2017 alone, pre-COVID, compared to the combined populations of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, England and Wales, said senior researcher Samue...

Could banning menthol cigarettes be key to lowering smoking rates overall?

New research suggests it's possible, after finding that a ban on menthol cigarettes in Canada was linked to a large increase in the number of smokers who quit.

The impact of the menthol ban in Canada suggests that a similar ban in the United States would have even greater benefits since menthol cigarettes are...

More than 60% of American adults who vape say they want to stop, a new study reports.

Some use electronic cigarettes to try to quit smoking traditional cigarettes, then end up vaping and smoking, the researchers found.

"While e-cigarettes may work for some people, they're hindering quit attempts for other people," said study first author Amanda Palmer, a postdoctoral fellow at the M...

Pandemic-related stress has prompted many smokers to light up more often, new research shows, while others smoked more because they could.

"Working at home allows me to smoke at will rather than being in a smoke-free environment for 8 hours per day," one study participant told researchers.

Whatever the reason, any increase in smoking could put these people at greater risk of depende...

U.S. surgery patients have a high rate of smoking, which could be one reason why some wind up on the operating table, researchers say.

A look at nearly 329,000 Michigan residents who had common surgical procedures between 2012 and 2019 found that nearly a quarter had smoked in the past year. In comparison, just over 14% of U.S. adults smoked in 2019.

The highest rates of smoking wer...

Nonsmokers usually try to avoid secondhand smoke, but many kids have no option, and now a new study finds tobacco smoke exposure puts them at higher risk of hospitalization.

Compared to other kids, those exposed to secondhand smoke were more likely to have had an urgent care visit over a one-year period, and to incur higher costs for such visits. They also were nearly twice as likely to b...

Vaping high-strength nicotine can help adults with schizophrenia stop smoking traditional cigarettes, according to a new study.

Between 60% and 90% of people with schizophrenia smoke, compared to 15% to 24% of the general population, the researchers noted in the report published March 16 in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Smoking is the main reason for a 15- to 25-...

Katie Rodgers was just 15 years old when she started smoking, and in her early 20s when it became a more significant habit.

Rodgers found quitting tough, but she managed to kick the habit at age 33 during a global pandemic because she knew that smoking would increase her anxiety and put her at higher risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19.

Her achievement was unusual at a time...

Why are men over 50 around the world 60% more likely than women to die early?

Two big reasons are higher rates of smoking and heart disease, according to a large new study.

The findings are based on an analysis of data from more than 179,000 people in 28 countries. Fifty-five percent were women.

Researchers examined how socioeconomic (education, wealth), lifestyle (smoking, al...

The number of Americans recommended for routine CT scans to spot lung cancer just got a lot bigger.

People between the ages of 50 and 80 who don't have symptoms of lung cancer, but are at high risk for the disease due to their smoking history should have the annual screen to help detect the disease early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded in new recommendations r...

The pandemic's spring lockdowns last year triggered an unwelcome side effect: New research shows more Americans turned to tobacco and nicotine as they struggled with boredom, anxiety and the disruption of regular routines.

Between April and May 2020, the study authors conducted telephone interviews with U.S. adults who use cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

During the survey period, nearly...

Teenagers who vape pot are more likely to wheeze and cough than those who smoke or vape nicotine, new survey data reveals.

Reports from U.S. kids 12 to 17 show they have a higher risk of wheezing, suffering from a dry cough, and having their sleep, speech or exercise impeded by wheezing if they vape marijuana products, according to results from the U.S. federally funded Population As...

Menthol cigarettes helped lure about 10 million extra Americans into smoking over 38 years, with often deadly results, according to a new study.

Researchers also concluded that menthol cigarettes were responsible for 378,000 premature deaths in the United States during the study period --1980 to 2018. Their report appears in the journal Tobacco Control.

The findings suggest...

Current and former smokers are at risk for a lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis, but many aren't aware of the threat, the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation says.

There is no cure for the disease, which affects more than 200,000 Americans.

A recent foundation survey found that more than 80% of smokers are unfamiliar with pulmonary fibrosis. This is a concerning statistic among a grou...

Here's one reason why past or current smoking may handicap you if you are battling breast cancer: New research suggests that nicotine promotes the spread of the disease to your lungs.

Smoking is known to increase the risk that breast cancer will spread, which lowers the survival rate by one-third at diagnosis. But the role of nicotine in the spread of breast cancer to the lungs has been l...

There's yet another reason to quit smoking: It increases the risk of deadly bleeding strokes, a new study warns.

Researchers focused on a type of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), which occurs when a blood vessel on the surface of the brain ruptures and bleeds into the space between the brain and the skull.

This type of stroke mainly affects middle-aged adults and has hig...

Vaping may not be a way for kids to avoid the smoking habit, after all. A new study finds that teens who start vaping are three times more likely to smoke cigarettes in adulthood than those who never started with electronic cigarettes.

Although the number of teens who start smoking cigarettes in high school has declined, vaping has soared. From 2016 to 2019, the number of cigarette smoke...

Smokers who swap some traditional cigarettes for the electronic kind may not be doing anything to protect their arteries, a new study hints.

People who smoke sometimes use "e-cigarettes" in a bid to get a nicotine fix without inhaling tobacco. But little is known about the effects of e-cigarettes on the risk of heart disease -- the top killer of smokers.

That's because heart disease...

Think your 'light' smoking habit isn't really all that dangerous? A new study finds that people who are casual cigarette smokers can also be addicted to nicotine.

Those who smoke one to four cigarettes per day or fewer meet the criteria for nicotine addiction and should be considered for treatment, researchers say.

"In the past, some considered that only patients who smoke around 1...

Many smokers make a New Year's resolution to quit, so the American Lung Association offers advice to improve their chances of success.

Smoking is a risk factor for severe COVID-19, so quitting is more important than ever, the association noted.

But keep in mind: Switching to electronic cigarettes is not quitting, the lung association stressed. E-cigarettes are tobacco products that ...

Teenagers who use e-cigarettes may be at increased risk of "mental fog," a new study suggests.

The study, of thousands of U.S. teens, found that those who vaped were three times more likely than their peers to report problems with concentration, memory and decision-making.

The findings mirror those of a recent study of adults by the same research team: Men and women who used e-...

Old age and chronic health conditions aren't the only risk factors for serious COVID-19 infection. Researchers say people with high levels of the heavy metal cadmium may also have higher odds of severe disease during the pandemic.

Cadmium is found in cigarettes and in contaminated vegetables. Previous research has shown that long-term exposure to cadmium, even at low levels, may weak...

American teens' use of tobacco cigarettes and smokeless tobacco has dropped to record lows, even as their use of electronic cigarettes increased, new research shows.

For the study, researchers analyzed nationwide data on tobacco product use among 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders from 1991 to 2019.

Daily smoking rates among 12th-grade boys rose 4.9% a year between 1991 and 1998, but fell...

If you smoke, you significantly increase your odds of developing bladder cancer, experts warn.

"Everyone knows smoking causes lung cancer, but they don't always know about bladder cancer," said Dr. Srinivas Vourganti, a urologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago who specializes in treating bladder and other urinary tract cancers.

Smoking causes more than half of all case...

Instead of being a safe alternative to smoking, vaping may serve as an enticing gateway to the cigarette habit for some teens, new research shows.

It's known that teens who use electronic cigarettes are more likely than their peers to take up the real thing. But the question of cause-and-effect has remained: Perhaps those same kids might have started smoking anyway?

But the new...

Although New York City has banned smoking in its public housing, exposure to secondhand smoke hadn't declined a year later, a new study finds.

The reasons might include delays in promotion and enforcement, researchers said. These include not putting up signs, training building managers and reluctance to report violations. Also, lack of smoking cessation services may be a factor.

The...

"Heat-not-burn" tobacco products, created as an alternative to other types of smoking, may harm the user's heart, researchers report.

These tobacco products -- think IQOS from Philip Morris -- are billed as substitutes for e-cigarettes or traditional smokes. But a new review finds they may be tied to heart and blood vessel harms.

Researchers found the inhalants were linked ...

Cutting back on booze may reduce chronic pain and use of other substances among U.S. veterans who are heavy drinkers, according to a new report.

The study included about 1,500 veterans who completed annual surveys between 2003 and 2015, and reported heavy drinking in at least one of those surveys.

"We found some evidence for improvement of pain interference symptoms and subs...

Parents are often clueless when their kids start smoking e-cigarettes, a new study finds.

On the other hand, Mom and Dad usually can tell if their children take up traditional smoking, said researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

Having strict household rules against any form of tobacco is the best form of prevention, researchers found. And those rules ...

Patients who have surgery for bladder cancer fare worse if they smoke, new research shows.

"This study is important because while it is known that tobacco smoking is the leading cause of bladder cancer, this is the first study to suggest that smoking puts bladder cancer patients at risk after diagnosis," said study co-author Dr. Giovanni Cacciamani. He's an assistant professor of res...

Smokers have a significantly raised risk of dying from a bleeding stroke, a new study warns.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from over 16,000 same-sex twin pairs in Finland. The twins were born before 1958 and followed for about 42 years (between 1976 and 2018).

During the follow-up, there were 120 deaths from subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). This is a type of bleedin...

Even light smokers are much more likely to die of lung disease or lung cancer than nonsmokers, a new study warns.

"Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but it's easy to assume that if you only smoke a little, the risks won't be too high," said study co-leader Pallavi Balte, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, in New York City.

The new study shows how wrong ...