Press Release
Surgeon General's Report Warns of Health Reversals as Minority Teen Smoking
Increases
First Report on Tobacco and Minorities Is Issued
Rapid increases in smoking by
minority teenagers threaten to reverse the progress against lung cancer among minority
populations which was made during the early 1990s, according to a new Surgeon
General’s report released today. Today’s report is the first in the 34-year
history of Surgeon General studies on tobacco and health to focus on tobacco use among
ethnic and racial minorities.
"We are witnessing the first steps
of a potentially tragic reversal for the health of American minorities," said Dr.
David Satcher in releasing his first report as Surgeon General, and the 24th Surgeon
General’s report to focus on tobacco use since 1964. "Where we once saw hopeful
signs of declining lung cancer among minorities in the early years of this decade, we now
see striking increases in smoking by minority youth. Unless we can reverse these trends,
they are bound to result in more lung disease and early death for these populations.
"We cannot sit by and let these
disturbing trends occur unchallenged. We must call attention to this threat, and we must
fight it," Dr. Satcher said.
"This new report clearly shows
tobacco’s increasing grip on racial and ethnic minorities -- the fastest growing
segments of the American population," said HHS Secretary Donna E.
Shalala. "This
new report underscores the need for Congress to pass comprehensive tobacco legislation
this year based on the President’s five key principles that includes a significant
price increase and a plan to dramatically reduce youth tobacco use."
Today’s report surveys tobacco use
and its health consequences among all four major U.S. racial and ethnic minority groups:
African-American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and
Hispanic. According to the report, cigarette smoking is a major cause of death and disease
in all four groups. African-American men bear one of the greatest health burdens of the
four ethnic groups, with death rates from lung cancer that are 50 percent higher than
those of white men.
Dr. Satcher noted that the four groups
studied by his new report make up about one-fourth of the U.S. population and are growing
rapidly. By the year 2050, members of these racial/ethnic minority groups will comprise
close to one-half of the United States population.
"This report sounds an urgent
alarm," said Dr. Satcher. "We must use every tool at our disposal to reduce
tobacco use among racial and ethnic minorities -- especially among adolescents -- and to
reverse these frightening trends."
From 1990-1995, death rates from
respiratory cancers declined substantially among African-American men, declined to a
lesser extent among Hispanic men and women, and leveled off among African-American women.
Death rates increased only among American Indians/Alaska Natives -- the only group for
which smoking rates increased during this period.
In recent years, however, tobacco use
among adolescents from racial and ethnic minority groups has begun to increase rapidly,
threatening to reverse the progress made against lung cancer among adults in these
minority groups. Though their rates remain considerably lower than those of whites,
cigarette smoking among African-American and Hispanic adolescents has increased in the
1990s after several years of substantial declines among adolescents of the major racial
and ethnic groups. This increase is particularly striking among African-American youths,
who had the greatest decline of the four groups during the 1970s and 1980s, but the
steepest increase in use in the 1990s. Cigarette smoking among African-American teens has
increased 80 percent over the last six years — three times as fast as among white teens.
"Unless they are reversed, these
increases in tobacco use are a time-bomb for the health of our minority populations,"
Dr. Satcher said. "If tobacco use continues to increase among minority adolescents,
we can expect severe health consequences to begin to be felt in the early part of the next
century."
In releasing the new report, Dr. Satcher
also emphasized the implications of increased tobacco use on children’s health.
"Not only does tobacco shorten the
lives of kids who start smoking, but babies and children who are exposed to tobacco smoke
have more ear infections, asthma, and a higher incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Mothers who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have a low birthweight baby and put
their babies at increased risk of SIDS," emphasized Dr. Satcher.
The Surgeon General’s report notes
that prevalence of tobacco use varies among and within racial and ethnic groups. For
example, American Indians/Alaska Natives have the highest rates of tobacco use, and
African-American and Southeast Asian men also have a high prevalence of smoking. Asian
American women and Hispanic women have the lowest levels of smoking. The report also shows
that, in general, smoking rates among Mexican-American adults increase as they learn and
adopt the values, beliefs, and norms of American culture.
According to the report, more prevention
research is needed to understand patterns of tobacco use and factors that affect tobacco
use. Questions also remain about differences in tobacco-related disease and death rates
among racial/ethnic minority groups.
A detailed summary of the Surgeon
General’s report, "Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups,"
and other related information can be found on CDC’s web site (www.cdc.gov/tobacco).
Copies of the Executive Summary and report "At-A-Glance" can also be ordered via
fax by calling 1-800-CDC-1311 or writing CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, Mail
Stop K-50, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, Georgia 30341-3717.
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