Smoking: Risk, Perception, and Policy

Edited by Paul Slovic

From the back cover:

The Federal Trade Commission reports that in 1999 the cigarette industry spent $8.24 billion dollars promoting smoking.

The year before, 22% of women and 26.4% of men were smokers. Among high school seniors, smoking prevalence was even higher.

In this provocative book, risk expert Paul Slovic and his colleagues both rebut the tobacco companies’ claim that beginning smokers understand the risks and expose the ways in which cigarette ads dupe the young into downplaying its dangers. Exploring the risks smokers face, their regret at taking up the habit, the nature of their addiction, the effects of advertising, and some smokers’ belief that they are immune to smoking;s effects, the author’s timely and compelling account is must reading for those troubled by the fact that smoking accounts for the premature death of one half of its regular users.

Available from publisher, Sage.

Reference: Slovic, P. (Ed.). (2001). Smoking: Risk, perception, and policy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.