Smoking Pack Years

What the Business Does

Smoking Pack Years provides a free calculator that turns a person’s lifetime tobacco use into a single “pack years” number. It serves healthcare professionals and the public, offering instructions, references and FAQs to support clinical recording and screening. The site highlights recognition in the GP Enterprise Awards 2012 and ongoing educational content.

Case Study

Smoking Pack Years is a purpose-built resource focused on one outcome: producing a clear, numerical value of lifetime tobacco exposure. The homepage centres on the calculator, which accommodates varied smoking histories by letting users enter quantities and durations for multiple tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars or spliffs, beedis, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, loose tobacco (oz/grams) and water pipe sessions. The result is a single pack-years score.

The site supports the calculator with practical guidance. The Instructions section explains how to enter values and interpret results, noting special cases such as weekly inputs for loose tobacco. The FAQs expand on clinical rationale, recording practices and calculator mathematics, with material prepared by Dr Nigel Masters and Catherine Tutt and updated in 2023. The References page cites conversion standards and literature underpinning the equivalences used for different tobacco products, and records additions such as beidis in 2024. A News area provides updates and articles relevant to smoking history recording and screening.

Contact details for Dr Nigel Masters and Catherine Tutt are provided, making it straightforward for clinicians or organisations to enquire. The privacy policy states the use of Google Analytics for understanding site usage. The site notes recognition in the GP Enterprise Awards 2012 for “Best use of Media and Technology,” reinforcing its focus on simple, freely available clinical tools.

Website Technology & Features

  • Platform/CMS: This website is built with WordPress.
  • Relevant WordPress features: Posts (News), pages (Instructions, FAQs, References, Contact), sitemap and privacy policy pages.
  • Notable services/features: Google Analytics (stated in the privacy policy). Contact page content with a JavaScript-rendered element.
  • Design/hosting: “This site is designed and hosted by Independent Web Marketing” (site footer).