De gezondheidseffecten van roken

• In this article we give a short overview of new insights into the effects of smoking on health, both on smokers themselves and on those who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke.
• The number of diseases and conditions that are known to be caused by active smoking has now risen to over thirty.
• The risk of premature death is not, as previously thought, twice as high in smokers as in non-smokers, but actually three times as high.
• Passive smoking too has been shown to have a whole range of negative effects on health.
• Further, the causal mechanisms of, amongst other things, the development of cancer, ischaemic heart disease and nicotine dependence under the influence of smoking have been largely unravelled.
• Various issues require further investigation; these include the effect of smoking on psychological health and the effects of ‘third-hand’ smoke. In the meantime, a concerted campaign against this consumer product with its deleterious effects of the health of the population is overdue.

Conflict of interest and financial support for this article: the work of J.V. Been is financially supported by personal fellowships from the Lung Foundation Netherlands and the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam.