Tobacco Documents Online

I I I u i U I L L SliP"MARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS ON HEALTH EFFECTS OF CiGARE:E SiMOK:,';G* CIGARE7E SMOKING IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PREVENTABLE CAUSE OF DEr,TH IN THE UNITED STATES, according to the Surgeon General. Beginning with the 1964 reUort of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, the scientific evidence on the health hazards of cigarette smoking from thousands of studies has been o_verNhelming. Cigarette smoking is responsible for more cancer cases and more cancer deaths than any other known agent. The incidence of cancer of the lung, oral cavity, larynx and urinary bladder are elevated several fold in cigarette smokers versus non-smokers. Cancer of the lung since 1945 has more than tripled in U.S. females, paralleling the postwar increase in smoking among U.S. women. Cigarette smoking continues to increase among young women age 17-18. This is the same grouo in the population that'is already at increased risk of venous thromboembolism and stroke due to the use of oral contraceotives among women of childbearing age. Cigarette smoking compounds these risks among young female smokers. Research since the late 1940's has.consistently shown that cigarette smokers have nearly twice the heart disease death rate of non-smokers. The difference in mortality is particularly great in individuals under age 65. Estimates derived from five major population studies of U.S. men aged 40-54 suggest that coronary heart disease death rates could be reduced by as much as 35 percent for whites and 32 percent for blacks by elimination of cigarette smoking. The excess coronary heart disease mortality in men attributable to cigarette smoking exceeds that due to the next two most important risk factors, hypertension and high blood cholesterol levels, put together. A seven year study by the Center for Disease Control of over 15,000 women published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1979 compared the risk of vascular disease in women from several causes. The study found that "cigarette smoking was overwhelmingly the most important risk factor for vascular disease in women." A 15-year study by a major life insurance company reported in 1979 that cigarette smokers have more than twice the death rate of non-smokers. Striking elevations in death rates among smokers were noted for respiratory cancer (15 times)~ other respiratory disease (3.7 times), heart disease (2.9 times), and motor vehicle accidents (2.6 times). The incidence of death by all causes was increased 2.2 times among smokers. Cigarette smoking has been shown to be hazardous to "passive" smokers as well as to smokers themselves. Studies recently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated "that chronic exposure to tobacco smoke in the work environment is deleterious to the non-smoker and significantly T reduces small-airways function." The researchers found that "there was no Ul significant difference in the (lung damage) scores bf the passive (non-smokers), ~ the smokers who did not inhale and the light smokers." Thus, persons who ~ work around smokers for a sufficient period of time can be shown to experience ~ quantitatively measurable lung damage, which may precede associated lung ~ disease such as emphysema and lung cancer. p~ *Sua,m~ity..e3 by uaur~,ce S. Reizen, H.D., Di.-ec*wr, .•Lichigan Derarrnent of Pt:blic l.~Va -170-

Cigarette smoking is causally implicated as a major contributory Factor in the leading causes of death and disability: heart disease, cancer and stroke. These diseases are not only killers, but constitute major drains on the nation's and state's health care resources. The costs attributable to such diseases, including direct medical care expenses plus disability and lost productivity costs, run into billions of dollars annually in the U.S. The human costs to individuals and survivors, of course, are beyond measure. I I I I I I I I .i I I I -171-