In a Puff of Smoke
Preventing Lung Cancer

Menu The Surgeon General's Report (R) Tobacco Road: History (T) Tobacco Trails: Smoking and Geography (P) Something's Burning: Combustion (L) Take a Deep Breath: Lung Capacity (L) Making a Model Lung (L) A Pack a Day: The Costs (M) What Gets in Your Lungs (I) Leaving the Pack (C) Taking Action (C) T = Timeline R = Reading B = Biography L = Laboratory   C = Class activity P = Paper activity M = Mathematics I = Interactive Web activity

Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable disease and death in the world. It is involved in about 30% of all cancer incidence. In the United States it accounts for almost 500,000 deaths each year, one in every five deaths. Smokers who quit do not escape the health effects of their smoking, but quitting is the most effective health step a smoker can take. There is a higher percentage of teenage smokers (35%) than in the general population (28%).

There are four activities in this section related to smoking's influence on the lungs. They are Something's Burning: Combustion, Take a Deep Breath: Lung Capacity, Making a Model Lung and What Gets in Your Lungs. Historical aspects of smoking and cancer are the topics for The Surgeon General's Report and Tobacco Road: History. The activity Tobacco Trails takes an international look at smoking. If you want to emphasize mathematics in this section you can use Tobacco Trails as well as A Pack A Day: The Costs. The last two activities on the menu are intended to encourage students to stop smoking and to encourage others to stop or not to start in the first place.

For more information, at other Web sites...

Chemicals & Human Health — includes tutorial with problem set on lung toxicology and an activity on the effects of second-hand smoke, part of The Biology Project from the University of Arizona.

DNA Sequencing Module — a class project investigating the link between genes and tobacco addiction, from the High School Human Genome Program, University of Washington.

Tobacco Induced Mutations — an activity in which students subject bacteria to tobacco smoke and observe the resulting mutagenic effects, from the University of Arizona Center for Toxicology Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center Community Outreach and Education Program Educational Resources.

Tobacco-Related Internet Resources — from the anti-smoking group Tobacco.org.