The IARC Monographs series publishes authoritative independent assessments by international experts of the carcinogenic risks posed to humans by a variety of agents, mixtures and exposures. They are a resource of information for both researchers and national and international authorities. This volume is particularly significant because tobacco smoke not only causes more deaths from cancer than any other known agent; it also causes more deaths from vascular and respiratory diseases. This volume contains all the relevant information on both direct and passive smoking. It is organised by first looking at the nature of agent before collecting the evidence of cancer in humans. This is followed by carcinogenicity studies on animals and then any other data relevant to an evaluation.

This monograph, Risks Associated with Smoking Cigarettes with Low Machine-Measured Yields of Tar and Nicotine, is the 13th report published in the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Smoking and Tobacco Control Program Monograph Series. One feature of this monograph is that it blends the old with the new. Monograph 7, The FTC Cigarette Test Method for Determining Tar, Nicotine, and Carbon Monoxide Yields of U.S. Cigarettes, covered the history of that protocol and recommended changes in its procedures. Chapter 2 of this publication cites this earlier monograph, brings us up to date on the FTC method, and provides additional suggestions as to what can be done to help alert the public to the dangers of smoking. The examination of the scientific literature on low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes is not unique to this monograph. Several of the earlier volumes devoted one or more chapters to discussions of the various health aspects of tar and nicotine levels. However, this monograph includes more than just the study of amounts of tar and nicotine. Chapter 5 includes a discussion on the continued health risks to smokers, even those who smoke a low-tar/low-nicotine cigarette, while Chapter 2 describes how changes in the cigarette design affect an individual's smoking habit. Chapter 7 points out how the tobacco companies' advertisements have changed to match the emerging public preference for low-tar/low-nicotine cigarettes. This monograph is unique in another important aspect. For the first time, the authors who prepared the various chapters have had extensive access to the information gleaned from the internal documents of the tobacco companies. The tobacco industry files now open to the public and available on the Internet constitute some 33 million pages of formal and informal memos, meeting notes, research papers, and similar corporate documents. Included are marketing strategies that express the growing concern among the various tobacco companies of the potential loss of new recruits. This concern over the potential loss of market was due to the evolving public opinion that smoking is harmful to health and that it is related to many of the illnesses that smokers experience over the course of their lives. The singular message that has been delivered to the public—smoking causes cancer—is gradually being accepted by more and more people of all ages.

This book comprehensively covers the science and policy issues relevant to one of the major public health disasters of modern times. It pulls together the aetiology and burden of the myriad of tobacco related diseases with the successes and failures of tobacco control policies. The book looks at lessons learnt to help set health policy for reducing the burden of tobacco related diseases. The book also deals with the international public health policy issues which bear on control of the problem of tobacco use and which vary between continents. The editors are an international group distinguished in the field of tobacco related diseases, epidemiology, and tobacco control. The contributors are world experts drawn from the various clinical fields. This major reference text gives a unique overview of one of the major public health problems in both the developed and developing world. The book is directed at an international public health and epidemiology audience includng health economists and those interested in tobacco control.

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