In 1998, an historic landmark legal settlement between 46 states and the major tobacco companies, – along with individual settlements with four other states – required the companies to pay more than $246 billion over time as compensation for tobacco-related health care costs.

Twenty-three percent of middle and high school students in the U.S. – a total of 6.2 million youth – have used a tobacco product in the past 30 days, according to the The National Youth Tobacco Survey results released yesterday. Why that matters: Most long-term tobacco product use begins during adolescence – and tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in this country and many others.

Health experts are cheering President Trump’s vow to ban flavored e-cigarettes, which they say are a major reason for the sharp rise in youthful vaping in the U.S. Trump made the announcement on Wednesday, noting “We can’t have our youth be so affected.” A half dozen recent deaths and hundreds of cases of lung disease across the country appear to be related to vaping, although the cases are still under investigation.

While vaping appears to be at the root of the growing number of people struck by pulmonary-related illnesses after vaping, the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) investigation into the cluster of illnesses is ongoing. To date, 193 cases of such illnesses have been reported across 22 states, with one death – Illinois. American Lung Association (ALA) Chief Medical Officer Albert Rizzo, M.D. called the developments “alarming.”

Does vaping have a long-term impact on someone’s lungs? Does the air quality where a person grows up put them at higher risk for respiratory conditions later in life? These are among the issues that will be examined in a large, first-of-its-kind longitudinal study of lung health led by Northwestern Medicine scientists in partnership with the American Lung Association (ALA).

OSHA releases its upcoming regulatory agenda, a treatment offers hope to those struggling with opioid addiction and contractors launch an effort to get motorists to drive safely in highway work zones. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

Just in time for World No Tobacco Day - which is today - the World Health Organization (WHO) has unleashed a barrage of statistics on the toll tobacco takes on lung health. For starters, tobacco kills at least eight million people a year across the globe. That’s according to WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who noted that millions more live with lung cancer, tuberculosis, asthma or chronic lung disease caused by tobacco.

Early-onset colorectal cancer –cancer occurring before age 50—is rising most rapidly in Western states, where healthy behaviors are prominent, according to a new study. The authors of the study, which appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, say the findings indicate the need for further etiologic studies to explore early-life colorectal carcinogenesis.

Nearly half a million Americans still die prematurely from tobacco use each year despite the fact that it is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the U.S.1, 2. So what can be done to prevent the toll of smoking in the U.S.? The workplace is an important setting for implementing tobacco control interventions. 3, 4

The daily use of marijuana among young adults who are not in college is at an all-time high, according to the latest Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey results announced by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).