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Alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol) consumption has a social aspect to it, but it is often abused. The effect of alcohol consumption on the body depends on how often it is consumed, how much, and the alcohol content of the drinks.
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Alcohol is produced by fermenting the starch or sugar in fruits and grains. Alcoholic drinks have different amounts of alcohol in them -- beer is about 5% alcohol, wine is usually 12 - 15% alcohol, and hard liquor is about 45% alcohol. See also: Alcohol and diet Alcoholism Alcohol withdrawal state
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This report includes information on recognizing the symptoms of problem drinking, treatment techniques, coping with a loved one's drinking, and overcoming denial.
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Researchers at the Harvard Medical School have discovered that the herb kudzu can curb the urge to drink alcohol.
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Alcohol is considered a drug because it depresses the central nervous system and can disrupt mental and motor skills, as well as damage internal organs when used excessively.
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It helps to understand why and when you drink if you are going to successfully reduce the amount of alcohol you consume.
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As a woman, your body is much more sensitive to the effects of alcohol and more easily damaged than a man’s body. Because women have less water in their body than men, alcohol doesn't dilute as much and more of it gets absorbed into the blood. That’s why women suffer greater physical damage and often become more intoxicated than men when they drink identical amounts of alcohol.
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A Harvard Medical School physician answers your question about forsaking the potential health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.
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Excessive drinking can cause potentially fatal conditions, not only high blood pressure, but also damage to the brain, heart or liver; diabetes and stroke.
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Is there any connection between rheumatoid arthritis and alcohol consumption? Does a prior history of waterborne hepatitis predispose a person to RA?
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If you drink, you most likely want to drink reasonably and responsibly. But what are the factors that can help you keep a check on your blood-alcohol content so you don't embarrass yourself or, worse, hurt yourself or others?
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Tips for avoiding the worst consequence of holiday overindulgence.Drinking fluids may help with the morning-after misery from getting drunk.
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Alcohol-dependent employees incur twice the health care costs of the average employee, are more likely to steal from their employers, are more likely to be involved in workplace accidents and are five times more likely to file worker’s compensation claims.
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Congenital heart disease, also called congenital heart defect, includes a variety of malformations of the heart or its major blood vessels that are present at birth. Congenital heart disease occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart do not develop properly before birth.
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Congenital heart diseases are abnormalities of the heart's structure and function caused by abnormal or disordered heart development before birth.
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Detailed information on the most common types of congenital heart disorders
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Congenital heart disease, also called congenital heart defect, includes a variety of malformations of the heart or its major blood vessels that are present at the birth of a child. Congenital heart disease occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart do not develop properly before birth.
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Congenital heart disease, or congenital heart defect, includes a variety of structural problems of the heart or its major blood vessels, which are present at birth. The heart, which is completely developed about eight weeks after conception, is one of the earliest organs to completely develop.
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Congenital heart disease, also called congenital heart defect, includes a variety of malformations of the heart or its major blood vessels that are present at the birth of a child. Congenital heart disease occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart do not develop properly before birth.
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Detailed information on diagnosing and evaluating heart disease in children
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Detailed information on congenital heart disease, including patent ductus arteriosus, atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular canal, tricuspid atresia, pulmonary atresia, transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, double outlet right ventricle, truncus arteriosus, coarctation of the aorta, aortic stenosis, and hypoplastic left heart syndrome
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Detailed information on congenital heart disease and factors that may have caused the defect
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Detailed information on congenital heart disease, including patent ductus arteriosus, atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular canal, tricuspid atresia, pulmonary atresia, transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, double outlet right ventricle, truncus arteriosus, coarctation of the aorta, aortic stenosis, and hypoplastic left heart syndrome
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Detailed information for children living with a congenital heart disease
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Detailed information on growth and development of the heart
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Detailed information on exercise and physical stamina issues surrounding congenital heart disease
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Detailed information on emotional and family issues surrounding congenital heart disease
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A threshold is the exposure level or dose of an agent above which toxicity or adverse health effects can occur, and below which toxicity or adverse health effects are unlikely. For example, taking aspirin is therapeutic and not dangerous up to a contain dose, but above that dose it can cause nausea, brain damage, bleeding, and, eventually, death.
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An electrolyte disorder is an imbalance of certain ionized salts (i.e.
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In populations, blood pressures fit a normal distribution, but the attendant risks of heart disease and stroke increase curvilinearly with increasing levels of blood pressure, without any obvious breakpoint ( Fig. 63-1 ). Thus, the separation of normal from high blood pressure is arbitrary, and the definition of hypertension has been a moving target.
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Blood pressure is the force with which blood pushes against the artery walls as it travels through the body. Like air in a balloon, blood fills arteries to a certain capacity- and just as too much air pressure can cause damage to a balloon, too much blood pressure can harm healthy arteries.
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Hypertension is the term doctors use for high blood pressure. Blood pressure readings are measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and usually given as 2 numbers. For example, 140 over 90 (written as 140/90. The top number is your systolic pressure, the pressure created when your heart beats. It is considered high if it is consistently over 140; The bottom number is your diastolic pressure, the pressure inside blood vessels when the heart is at rest. It is considered high if it is consistently over 90. Either or both of these numbers may be too high. Pre-hypertension is when your systolic blood pressure is between 120 and 139 or your diastolic blood pressure is between 80 and 89 on multiple readings. If you have pre-hypertension, you are more likely to develop high blood pressure at some point. See also: Blood pressure
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Detailed information on high blood pressure, also called hypertension, including symptoms, diagnostic, and treatment information
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The following Clinical Topic Tour provides an overview of hypertension (HTN) and was adapted from materials published by the NHLBI.
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Also known as high blood pressure, a condition in which too much force is exerted by the blood as it travels through the body ' s arteries. There are two types of hypertension: primary and secondary.
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High blood pressure is a sneaky ailment. The condition has no symptoms that you can see or feel. Having your blood pressure checked is the only way to know if it is high.
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Each day that your blood pressure is too high, your chances of having a stroke are increased.
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This report explains what your blood pressure numbers mean and how hypertension can be prevented and treated by making diet and lifestyle changes. Also includes information on medications.
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Knowing the definitions of terms your doctor may use when talking with you about your blood pressure is important.
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Detailed information on high blood pressure, also called hypertension, including symptoms, diagnostic, and treatment information
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Detailed information on high blood pressure, also called hypertension, including symptoms, diagnostic, and treatment information
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Hypertension is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke, leading causes of morbidity and mortality in North America. Concern has been raised that there is inadequate outpatient detection, evaluation, and treatment of hypertension, and that this is resulting in increased hospital admissions with complications of untreated hypertension: heart failure, and end-stage renal disease .
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Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of arteries as it flows through them.
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High blood pressure has joined type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol on a list of ailments that once struck only adults but now afflict children.
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Prehypertension is a new term that alerts people to the risk of developing chronic high blood pressure if they don’t take timely steps to improve their lifestyle habits.
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High blood pressure is more common among African Americans than other ethnic groups. Nearly 40 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have hypertension.
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When I get up in the morning, my systolic blood pressure is 30 to 50 points higher than it is later in the day (about 110). I am taking three different blood pressure medications. Is this unusual?
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The National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) was established in 1972 by the National Institute of Health to translate research results on the health hazards of high blood pressure into clinical and public health practice. Before 1900, high blood pressure, or hypertension, was not generally recognized as a health problem.
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While people with high blood pressure are typically told to abstain from alcohol, a study suggests that moderate alcohol consumption may help prevent them from having a heart attack.
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Did you know you can purchase your own blood pressure monitor and check the reading yourself at home?
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A Harvard Medical School doctor discusses possible causes of low blood pressure.
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Is it absolutely necessary for a diabetic who does not have high blood pressure to take a blood pressure pill anyway?
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Detailed information on high blood pressure, also called hypertension, including symptoms, diagnostic, and treatment information
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A healthy blood pressure level can reduce your risk for many serious diseases and increase your longevity.
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Risk factors are things that make you more likely to have a disease or condition. Do you know your risk factors for high blood pressure?
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High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the most common chronic adult illness in the United States. There is no cure for high blood pressure, but it can be controlled.
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What causes high blood pressure in a 4-year-old?
Claire McCarthy, M.D., is a senior medical editor for Harvard Health Publications. She is an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician at Children's Hospital of Boston, and co-director of the pediatrics department at Martha Eliot Health Center, a neighborhood health service of Children's Hospital. The author of two books, "Learning How the Heart Beats" and "Everyone's Children", Dr. McCarthy was a regular columnist for "Sesame Street Parents Magazine" from 1995 to 1998 and is currently a contributing editor for "Parenting Magazine".
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The FDA has approved a new blood pressure drug that works by inhibiting hte production of renin, a substance made by the kidneys that is the first step in the body's system of regulating blood pressure.
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High blood pressure (hypertension) is called the silent killer. This is because many people who have it don’t know it. You can take an easy test to see if your blood pressure is too high. If it is high, you can take steps to lower it. Doing so could save your life.
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For those living with high blood pressure, lifestyle changes such as eating a healthier diet, exercising regularly, and losing weight will likely have a positive effect not just on blood pressure, but on overall health.
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Even if your blood pressure is normal or high-normal, you're still at increased risk for hypertension (high blood pressure), the condition in which your heart works too hard and the resulting forceful blood flow harms arteries.
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Hypertension, or high blood pressure, isn't limited to those 18 and older.
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Prehypertension is a new term that alerts people to the very real risk of developing chronic high blood pressure if they don't take timely steps to improve their lifestyle habits.
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In most cases, high blood pressure responds to treatment, but the success of the treatment is up to you.
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The number of Americans with high blood pressure has risen steadily since the 1960s, and now tops 65 million.
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If you have high blood pressure, you need to know, so you can control it. If you don't, you increase your risk for serious illness.
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Is it possible for a blockage in the kidneys to cause high blood pressure? What type of blockage would there be in a kidney?
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This HealthSheet was discontinued in quarter 1 of 2006. (also 83203 Spanish) Replaced with: (same title) 85660 English – 85661 Spanish
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High blood pressure can contribute to sexual problems, as can some treatments for it.
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Hypertension is high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of arteries.
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A study reports that if the vertebra that supports the skull is misaligned, careful manipulation of it may result in a significant drop in blood pressure.
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Isolated systolic hypertension, when the systolic blood pressure is above 140 while the diastolic pressure is below 90, is caused by stiffening of large arteries. Medication may be prescribed, but lifestyle changes will have more impact on overall health.
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Hypertension is high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of arteries as it flows through them.
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An old theory about the connection between headache and high blood pressure makes a comeback.
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The category of prehypertension was established to serve as a warning. Those whose blood pressure reading falls in it should work to lower their pressure through diet, exercise, and weight control, though in some cases medication may be prescribed.
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Hypertension is high blood pressure . Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of arteries as it flows through them.
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Smokeless tobacco (ST), referred to by many as " spit tobacco " is tobacco designed for oral use where no combustion takes place, such as occurs when one smokes tobacco. The tobacco is placed in the mouth, in the form of snuff (moist, dry, sachet) or chewing (loose-leaf, plug, twist), where several compounds are absorbed through the mucous membrane.
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HEALTH RISKS There are many reasons to quit using tobacco...This trend is likely related to the false belief that smokeless tobacco is safe...Smokeless tobacco carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes...
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Take Action Against Tobacco on World No Tobacco Day, May 31World No Tobacco Day is celebrated around the world every year on May 31, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO).Since 1999, the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day ha...
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Smuggling tobacco is the illegal movement of tobacco products across domestic or international borders. It reduces tax revenues, thereby weakening the effectiveness of tobacco control laws.
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Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in developed countries, and by the year 2030 is projected to be so for the entire world. The situation is particularly tragic given that the harm caused by tobacco use has been known by the medical and public health communities, as well as by the tobacco industry, for nearly half a century, and that the means to reduce tobacco use are well known and relatively inexpensive and cost-effective.
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Smokeless Tobacco and Cancer: Questions and AnswersKey PointsSnuff is a finely ground or shredded tobacco that is either sniffed through the nose or placed between the cheek and gum. Chewing tobacco is used by putting a wad of tobacco inside the c...
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Detailed information on the link between tobacco and oral cancer, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco and snuff
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Many people think using smokeless tobacco is safer than smoking. Just because there's no smoke, doesn't mean it's safe.
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Expert-reviewed information summary about research and guidelines focused on the prevention and cessation of cigarette smoking.
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Smokeless Tobacco and Cancer: Questions and AnswersKey PointsSnuff is a finely ground or shredded tobacco that is either sniffed through the nose or placed between the cheek and gum. Chewing tobacco is used by putting a wad of tobacco inside the c...
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The health consequences of using smokeless tobacco include increased heart rate, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and mouth sores.
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Tobacco counter-marketing campaigns are primarily intended to reduce smoking prevalence. This can be achieved by urging adolescents and adults not to take up smoking (prevention messages), or by convincing current smokers to quit (cessation messages).
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Retail stores represent the main interface between tobacco producers and customers. Other sources include home-grown and black market cigarettes that have been smuggled to avoid taxes.
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Canada is recognized as a world leader in tobacco control. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Canada had the world ' s highest per capita tobacco consumption, but by 1992, adult per capita consumption was 40 percent lower than in 1982.
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There were approximately 1.1 billion smokers in the world in 2000, a figure predicted to exceed 1.
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Governments often use regulatory powers to protect the health of citizens. In 1854 Dr.
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At its simplest level, advocacy involves writing or speaking in an effort to convince others to take some type of action. Tobacco control advocacy is aimed at reducing the harm caused by tobacco use by changing the underlying political, economic, and social conditions that encourage tobacco use.
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During the final third of the twentieth century, taxes imposed on tobacco products, especially cigarettes, became a principal weapon in the war against tobacco-produced disease. A series of studies by economists demonstrated convincingly that increases in cigarette prices, driven by increases in cigarette taxes, reduced cigarette smoking.
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The goal of state or provincial tobacco-control programs is to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use, the single most preventable cause of death and disease in developed societies. Annually, tobacco use causes more than 400,000 deaths in the United States, at a cost of approximately $50 billion to $73 billion in medical expenses alone.
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According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), which is also referred to as secondhand smoke, is a mixture of the smoke emanating from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It has also been called passive, or involuntary, smoke.
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The use of mass media for tobacco control increased in developed countries in the 1990s, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The emergence of significant funding sources, particularly legal statements with tobacco companies and earmarked tobacco taxes, has allowed the implementation of sustained, mass media campaigns with sufficient audience reach to be effective.
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Detailed information on the link between tobacco and oral cancer, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco and snuff
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