Don’t Be A “Downer”

“When will they ever learn!” If you wonder why all your pleadings and warnings and worst-case scenarios don’t seem to have an influence on your child’s behavior, it may be time to lose the negativity: A recent study suggests that focusing on...

The E-Cig

Nothing looks more uncool than a teenager holding a cigarette. Unless he is holding an e-cigarette: “E-cigarette experimentation and recent use doubled among U.S. middle and high school students during 2011–2012, resulting in an estimated 1.78 million students having...

Smoking Bans

There are only seven states — Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Oregon and Utah — that ban smoking in vehicles carrying children.  Yet, a new poll conducted by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital finds that a...

Smokers Need Not Apply

A growing number of health care systems are denying employment to smokers.  David A. Asch, M.D. and colleagues explain why in the New England Journal of Medicine: Tobacco use is responsible for approximately 440,000 deaths in the United States each year — about one...

Put Your Butt Out

New evidence supports an old conclusion:  If you’ve never smoked, don’t start.  If you do smoke, stop.  Two articles published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine point to the fact that cigarette smoking remains a huge public health...