smoking

It’s no news that smoking is bad for us, and that the risks are compounded for expectant mothers. Research shows pregnant smokers have a higher risk of premature births, birth defects, low birth weight, miscarriages and stillbirths — so it’s especially shocking that a new study reveals more than a fifth of white women continue to light up while they’re eating for two.

If you’re a smoker who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, you may soon have to scratch city employment off your list of job prospects — the city is considering a ban on hiring tobacco users.

It wasn’t that long ago that smoking was as synonymous with bars as alcohol and questionable decisions. However, over the last decade, more and more states and local government are banning cigarettes from saloons.

Although doctors typically gauge a smoker’s willingness to quit before offering help in doing so, new research indicates that help should be offered to all smokers.

While most cases of lung cancer occur in smokers, nearly 20 percent of cases strike those who’ve never touched a cigarette. When it comes down to the facts, 32,000 nonsmoking Americans die from lung cancer every year — so many that experts say it’s time to stop calling it “the smoker’s disease.”

The brilliant ladies of MTV's 'Teen Mom' may have met their match in Charlie Wilcox. Wilcox, a British mother who smoked 3,500 cigarettes while pregnant, claims all that nicotine was actually healthy for her newborn daughter because it made the girl's heart work harder since it restricted her oxygen supply while in utero.