“Sitting is the new smoking” is a popular expression showing just how bad sitting is for the body—sitting can be as bad as smoking. A headline in the Daily Mail (UK) in 2007 was, “Sitting at a desk all day is ‘as bad for health as smoking.’”
 
“Sitting is the new smoking” was first cited on Twitter on August 26, 2010.
 
The expression was popularized in “Those with a desk job, please stand up” by Michael S. Rosenwald, in the Washington (DC) Post on October 17, 2010:
 
“‘Every rock we turn over when it comes to sitting is stunning,’ said Marc Hamilton, a leading researcher on inactivity physiology at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana. ‘Sitting is hazardous. It’s dangerous. We are on the cusp of a major revolution about what we think of as healthy behavior in the workplace.’ He calls sitting ‘the new smoking.’”
 
Dr. James Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative, wrote “Your Chair: Comfortable but Deadly” for Diabetes (November 2010), was mentioned in this same article as Marc Hamilton, and is often credited for the saying. However, it’s uncertain if Levine said it before Hamilton.
     
   
Daily Mail (UK)
Sitting at a desk all day is ‘as bad for health as smoking’
Last updated at 20:58 08 November 2007
Sitting down for extended periods poses a health risk as “insidious” as smoking or over-exposure to the sun, a scientist claims.
Millions of workers who sit at desks for hours on end before going home to sit in front of the TV are increasing their chances of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, says Professor Marc Hamilton of the University of Missouri.
     
25 February 2010, The Pulse (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), “Sitting at work: a health hazard”:
“When we’re idle, we’re not contracting muscles and muscle contraction is an important component of the body’s regulatory processes,” says Dunstan, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. In fact, one American expert, Professor Marc Hamilton, from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, has gone so far as to suggest sitting for most of the day may be as dangerous to health as smoking.
 
Twitter
Stuart Millinship
‏@Ermintru
Sitting is the new smoking http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/08/26/2028239/Sit-Longer-Die-Sooner
6:07 PM - 26 Aug 2010
   
Washington (DC) Post
Those with a desk job, please stand up
By Michael S. Rosenwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 17, 2010; 11:07 AM
(...)
“Every rock we turn over when it comes to sitting is stunning,” said Marc Hamilton, a leading researcher on inactivity physiology at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana. “Sitting is hazardous. It’s dangerous. We are on the cusp of a major revolution about what we think of as healthy behavior in the workplace.” He calls sitting “the new smoking.”
 
Twitter
Allen Varney
‏@AllenVarney
“Sitting is the new smoking” - sitting all day considered harmful (WaPo): http://wapo.st/drz2iE
8:16 AM - 17 Oct 2010
 
Facebook
Dr. Mehmet Oz
October 18, 2010 ·
The claim: sitting is the “new smoking” – increasing your risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. How are you standing up for your health at work? What do you do to stay active?
       
OCLC WorldCat record     
Health-Chair Reform: Your Chair: Comfortable but Deadly
Author: J A Levine
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Diabetes, v59 n11 (20101101): 2715-2716
 
BBC News
Inactivity ‘killing as many as smoking’
By Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, BBC News
18 July 2012
A lack of exercise is now causing as many deaths as smoking across the world, a study suggests.
The report, published in the Lancet to coincide with the build-up to the Olympics, estimates that about a third of adults are not doing enough physical activity, causing 5.3m deaths a year.
 
The Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON)
Why the sedentary life is killing us
ANDRÉ PICARD
Published Monday, Oct. 15, 2012 3:46PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012 5:39PM EDT
Sitting is the new smoking.
 
Get used to that expression because you’re going to be hearing it a lot. Inactivity has become public enemy No. 1.
 
Google Books
Let Me Tell You a Story:
Inspirational Stories for Health, Happiness, and a Sexy Waist
By James H. O’Keefe with Joan O’Keefe
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
2013
Pg. 54:
Sitting Is the New Smoking: It’s Time to Kick This Habit, Too!
   
Los Angeles (CA) Times   
Don’t just sit there. Really.
By KAREN RAVN
MAY 25, 2013 12 AM
(...)
“Sitting is the new smoking,” says Anup Kanodia, a physician and researcher at the Center for Personalized Health Care at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
 
Los Angeles (CA) Times
‘Get Up!’ or lose hours of your life every day, scientist says
By Mary MacVean
JULY 31, 2014 1:17 PM
There’s a saying going around that sitting is the new smoking. It’s a bit snarky and perhaps a none-too-subtle dig at those of us who spend a lot of time on our rear ends for work and pleasure. But Dr. James Levine, who is credited with it, is dead serious. In fact, he says, sitting could be worse than smoking.
 
What to do about it? “Get Up!” is the title of Levine’s new book, a jovial tale of how he came to the scientific conclusion that our chairs are killing us and what can be done to stop the threat.
 
We lose two hours of life for every hour we sit, writes Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative and inventor of the treadmill desk. Sitting all day is not natural and to blame for all kinds of ailments, including obesity, he says.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Deskbound : sitting is the new smoking.
Author: Kelly Starrett
Publisher: [Place of publication not identified] : Tuttle Publishing, 2015.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English
     
ergotron
Debunking Ergonomic Myths: Sitting is the New Smoking
October 9, 2017
(...)
The phrase “sitting is the new smoking” may cause a few eye rolls, but people had the same reaction 50 years ago when scientists began to suggest that smoking leads to cancer and heart disease. It may seem provocative to compare smoking to sitting, but it’s not just a made-up headline. This comparison originated with Anup Kanodia, a physician and researcher at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, and scientists from the Mayo Clinic (James Levine, “Get Up!: Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About It”) to NASA (Joan Vernikos, “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals”) agree.
 
Google Books
Humanizing Digital Reality:
Design Modelling Symposium Paris 2017
Edited by Klaas De Rycke, Christoph Gengnagel, Olivier Baverel, Jane Burry, Caitlin Mueller, Minh Man Nguyen, Philippe Rahm and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen
Singapore: Springer
2018
Pg. 108:
Dr James Levin, Mayo clinic is credited with coining “sitting is the new smoking.”