Smoking Quitline
Talk with an NCI smoking cessation counselor for help quitting and answers to smoking related questions in English or Spanish call toll free within the United States, Monday through Friday 8 00 a.m. to 8 00 p.m. Eastern Time.
1 877 44U QUIT (1 877 448 7848)

LiveHelp Online Chat
Get information and advice about quitting smoking through a confidential online text chat with an information specialist from NCI’s Cancer Information Service Monday through Friday, 8 00 a.m. to 11 00 p.m. Eastern Time LiveHelp


This website offers science driven tools, information, and support that have been effective in helping smokers quit

Smokefree Women
Try the Smokefree Women website for information on how to quit smoking. The site covers smoking related topics that are often important to women, such as weight management and stress, and tells how to contact experts and find other resources.

Smokefree Teen
The Smokefree Teen website was developed specifically to help teen smokers quit and offers tailored information, several social media pages to connect teens with cessation tools, and a free smartphone application.

News

The Health Consequences of Smoking 50 Years of Progress A Report of the Surgeon General, 2014
This website links to the full 2014 Surgeon General’s report and to other related resources, including summaries, fact sheets, videos, podcasts, and more.

Tobacco FactsTobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It causes many different cancers as well as chronic lung diseases, such as emphysema and bronchitis, and heart disease.

  • Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 443,000 deaths each year, including approximately 49,000 deaths due to exposure to secondhand smoke.
  • Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States, and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths among men and approximately 80 percent of lung cancer deaths among women are due to smoking.
  • Smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, and acute myeloid leukemia.
  • People who smoke are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Smoking also causes most cases of chronic lung disease.
  • In 2011, an estimated 19 percent of U.S. adults were cigarette smokers.
  • Nearly 16 percent of high school students smoke cigarettes.
    (See Tobacco Statistics Snapshot for references for this information.)

More Information about Tobacco Use

Fda proposes first regulations for e-cigarettes – abc news

What brand of cigarettes did the x-files’ smoking man smoke?

The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.

While the proposal being issued Thursday won’t immediately mean changes for the popular devices, the move is aimed at eventually taming the fast growing e cigarette industry.

The agency said the proposal sets a foundation for regulating the products but the rules don’t immediately ban the wide array of flavors of e cigarettes, curb marketing on places like TV or set product standards.

Any further rules “will have to be grounded in our growing body of knowledge and understanding about the use of e cigarettes and their potential health risks or public health benefits,” Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said.

Once finalized, the agency could propose more restrictions on e cigarettes. Officials didn’t provide a timetable for that action.

Members of Congress and public health groups have raised concerns over e cigarettes and questioned their marketing tactics.

“When finalized (the proposal) would result in significant public health benefits, including through reducing sales to youth, helping to correct consumer misperceptions, preventing misleading health claims and preventing new products from entering the market without scientific review by FDA,” said Mitch Zeller, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

The FDA said the public, members of the industry and others will have 75 days to comment on the proposal. The agency will evaluate those comments before issuing a final rule but there’s no timetable for when that will happen. The regulations will be a step in a long process that many believe will ultimately end up being challenged in court.

E cigarettes are plastic or metal tubes, usually the size of a cigarette, that heat a liquid nicotine solution instead of burning tobacco. That creates vapor that users inhale.

Smokers like e cigarettes because the nicotine infused vapor looks like smoke but doesn’t contain the thousands of chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes. Some smokers use e cigarettes as a way to quit smoking tobacco, or to cut down. However, there’s not much scientific evidence showing e cigarettes help smokers quit or smoke less, and it’s unclear how safe they are.

The industry started on the Internet and at shopping mall kiosks and has rocketed from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide who can choose from more than 200 brands. Sales are estimated to have reached nearly $2 billion in 2013. Tobacco company executives have noted that they are eating into traditional cigarette sales, and their companies have jumped into the business.

Some believe lightly regulating electronic cigarettes might actually be better for public health overall, if smokers switch and e cigarettes really are safer. Others are raising alarms about the hazards of the products and a litany of questions about whether e cigarettes will keep smokers addicted or encourage others to start using e cigarettes, and even eventually tobacco products.

“Right now for something like e cigarettes, there are far more questions than answers,” Zeller said, adding that the agency is conducting research to better understand the safety of the devices and who is using them.