Julia K Cole

Although smoking is becoming less popular in many parts of the world, the total number of smokers is growing, global figures reveal. In 2012, 967 million people smoked every day compared with 721 million in 1980, data from 187 countries shows. The rise is linked to population growth, researchers told JAMA. With the Earth's population having more than doubled in the last 50 years to seven billion, there are simply more people to take up the habit. Several large countries, including Bangladesh, China and Russia, have seen increasing numbers of inhabitants take up smoking in recent years, the figures show. Indeed, some of the highest smoking rates are now seen in the developing world, according to the JAMA report from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in the US. But global smoking prevalence - the proportion of the world's population that smokes - has gone down. Around three in 10 men (31%) and one in 20 women (6%)...

E-cigarette health risks could potentially outweigh the risks of smoking regular cigarettes. The levels of nicotine in e-cigarettes can kill a child, its carcinogens can cause cancer in adults, and the unknown chemicals added to the nicotine-laced liquid solution are kept hidden from the consumer. Because of the e-cigarette health risks, “the French government has already vowed to extend existing legislation controlling the sale and consumption of tobacco to cover e-cigarettes,” reported EuroNews on Aug. 27, 2013. The e-cigarette health risk warning has been issued after a French study discovered that e-cigarettes are not as harmless and without health risks as many e-cigarette smokers are led to believe. “The vapours can contain almost the same amounts of the carcinogenic compound formaldehyde as in a conventional cigarette.” *~*~*~*~* Concerns about the health effects of e-cigarettes have prompted a California town to consider a moratoriu...