This study reviews and updates the health risks of cigarette smoking, based on the studies conducted in European countries, stressing cigarette smoking at the workplace. A review is made of the risks for both sexes, the impact on life expectancy, the advantages of quitting smoking, the social pattern of cigarette smoking in Western societies and the social differences in the diseases caused thereby. A description is also provided of the immediate and long-range effects of passive smoking, the consequences of passive smoking at the workplace and the methods for measuring Environmental Tobacco Smoke.