SUMMARY: Use the drop-down menu to specify ALL words, ANY word, or EXACT phrase - In the alternative:
Use "AND" [+]  "OR" and "NOT" [-] , together with ( ) ,  for greater precision - See Examples Below

USING THE DROP-DOWN MENU - indicated by the small arrow just below the search box:

(1) For most searches the best way to proceed is to type two or more words into the box and then click on "search."  The search engine will return all files on the site which contain each [ALL] of the words in the box.
     EXAMPLE: With the "(1) Search ALL words" option [the default], lung cancer will return all pages with both the words "lung" and "cancer" in any order, including phrases like "cancer of the lung"  or  "lung and bladder cancer"

(2) If you set the drop-down menu to "(2) Search ANY word", you can then type in different words if you are not sure which one might be used in the documents you are searching for.
     EXAMPLE: With the "(2) Search ANY words" option, cancer carcinoma cancerous will return all pages which have any one or more of those words on them.

(3) If you set the drop-down men to "(3) Search EXACT phrase" option, you can then type in words which make up an exact phrase which you are searching for.
     EXAMPLE: With the "(3) Search EXACT phrase" option, lung cancer will return all pages with the phrase "lung cancer" in it, but not those with "cancer of the lung",  "lung and bladder cancer", etc. - contrast this with example (1) above.
     EXAMPLE: More common example of exact phrases which might be used include "environmental tobacco smoke", "world health organization", etc. NOTICE: capitalization doesn't matter - searches are NOT case sensitive

MORE COMPLEX SEARCHES USING CONNECTORS -  just type them into the box above:

For the most precise searches, you may use the following connectors:

AND = ALL words - alternatively, you can use the + sign, as in  +lung  +cancer
OR = ANY words
" " = EXACT phrase
NOT = NOT this word - alternatively, you can use the - sign, as in  +cancer  -lung
( ) = perform this operation FIRST

     EXAMPLE:  (cancer OR carcinoma) AND (child OR minor OR infant OR boy OR girl OR teen)  will find all pages which contain either the word "cancer" or the word "carcinoma", and also contain either "child" or "minor" or "infant" or "boy" or "girl" or "teen" [since any one or more of the words might be used in an article to refer to a child.

     EXAMPLE: (cancer OR carcinoma) AND NOT lung will find all pages which contain either the word "cancer" or "carcinoma", but which do not also contain the word "lung".  This might be useful to try to identify the many different types of cancer other than lung cancer caused by smoking or by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.  By the way . . .

     EXAMPLE: ("environmental tobacco smoke" OR ets OR "secondhand tobacco smoke" OR "secondhand smoke" ) and (constituents OR ingredients OR chemicals OR toxins) might be a good way to look for documents which list what is in tobacco smoke breathed by nonsmokers.

NOTE: The search engine data base is updated weekly.  For recent news items, check the news menu in the right column of the main ASH web page.