Smoking, the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States, results in 440 000 deaths annually, (MMWR, 2003). Retrospective reports have indicated smoking is associated with specific negative health outcomes, including several types of cancer, as well as, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (USDHHS, 2004). Prospective work has confirmed many of these associations (Engeland, Haldorsen, Anderson, & Tretli, 1996; Freund, 1993; Giovannucci et al., 1994; Godtfredsen, Prescott, & Osler, 2005; Hirdes, Brown, Vigoda, Forbes, & Crawford, 1987; Howard et al., 1998; Lam et al., 1997; Nusselder, Looman, Mheen, Mheen, & Mackenbach, 2000; Ostbye & Taylor, 2004; Ostbye, Taylor, & Jung, 2002; Prescott, Hippe, Schnohr, Hein, & Vestbo, 1998; Prescott et al., 1998; Simons, Simons, McCallum, & Friedlander, 2005; Wannamethee, Shaper, & Perry, 2001; Weir, 1970; Yuan et al., 1996) and has demonstrated a temporal ordering suggesting the likelihood of a causal relationship between smoking and these disease outcomes.
