Environmental Health Aspects Of Tobacco Smoke. Part 2: Epidemiologic Features And Health Effects

As the Education of health risks due to tobacco consumption is one of the daily tasks of physicians, this article will provide further background information about tobacco consumption and tobacco smoke. In an article published earlier in this journal, a brief history of changes in tobacco consumption and the worldwide spread of the cigarette, as well as information about smoke generation and its main hazardous contents were already presented. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the global tobacco consumption as tobacco epidemic. Therefore, this article will address the epidemiology and the health consequences of tobacco consumption. Current data of worldwide active and passive smoking and of the consumption of different tobacco products will be presented, following a summary of the health consequences, which are associated with active and passive tobacco smoke exposition.