New Surgeon General's Report Expands List of Diseases Caused by Smoking
U.S. Surgeon General Richard
H. Carmona today released a new comprehensive report on smoking and health,
revealing for the first time that smoking causes diseases in nearly every
organ of the body. Published 40 years after the surgeon general’s first
report on smoking — which concluded that smoking was a definite cause of
three serious diseases — this newest report finds that cigarette smoking is
conclusively linked to diseases such as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and
cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach.
“We’ve known for decades that smoking is bad
for your health, but this report shows that it’s even worse,” Dr. Carmona
said. “The toxins from cigarette smoke go everywhere the blood flows. I’m
hoping this new information will help motivate people to quit smoking and
convince young people not to start in the first place.”
According to the report,
smoking kills an estimated 440,000 Americans each year. On average, men
who smoke cut their lives short by 13.2 years, and female smokers lose 14.5
years. The economic toll exceeds $157 billion each year in the United
States — $75 billion in direct medical costs and $82 billion in lost
productivity.
“We need to cut smoking in
this country and around the world,” HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.
“Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease, costing us
too many lives, too many dollars and too many tears. If we are going to be
serious about improving health and preventing disease we must continue to
drive down tobacco use. And we must prevent our youth from taking up this
dangerous habit.”
In 1964, the Surgeon General’s
report announced medical research showing that smoking was a definite cause
of cancers of the lung and larynx (voice box) in men and chronic bronchitis
in both men and women. Later reports concluded that smoking causes a number
of other diseases such as cancers of the bladder, esophagus, mouth and
throat; cardiovascular diseases; and reproductive effects. Today’s new
report, The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon
General, expands the list of illness and conditions linked to smoking.
The new illnesses and diseases are cataracts, pneumonia, acute myeloid
leukemia, abdominal aortic aneurysm, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer,
cervical cancer, kidney cancer, and periodontitis.
Statistics indicate that more
than 12 million Americans have died from smoking since the 1964 report of
the surgeon general, and another 25 million Americans alive today will most
likely die of a smoking-related illness.
The report’s release comes in
advance of World No Tobacco Day, an annual event on May 31 that
focuses global attention on the health hazards of tobacco use. The goals of
World No Tobacco Day are to raise awareness about the dangers of
tobacco use, encourage people not to use tobacco, motivate users to quit and
encourage countries to implement comprehensive tobacco control programs.
The report concludes that
smoking reduces the overall health of smokers, contributing to such
conditions as hip fractures, complications from diabetes, increased wound
infections following surgery, and a wide range of reproductive
complications. For every premature death caused each year by smoking, there
are at least 20 smokers living with a serious smoking-related illness.
Another major conclusion,
consistent with recent findings of other scientific studies, is that smoking
so-called low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes does not offer a heath benefit
over smoking regular or “full-flavor” cigarettes.
“There is no safe cigarette,
whether it is called ‘light,’ ultra-light,’ or any other name,” Dr. Carmona
said. “The science is clear: the only way to avoid the health hazards of
smoking is to quit completely or to never start smoking.”
The report concludes that quitting smoking has
immediate and long-term benefits, reducing risks for diseases caused by
smoking and improving health in general. “Within minutes and hours after
smokers inhale that last cigarette, their bodies begin a series of changes
that continue for years,” Dr. Carmona said. “Among these health
improvements are a drop in heart rate, improved circulation, and reduced
risk of heart attack, lung cancer and stroke. By quitting smoking today a
smoker can assure a healthier tomorrow."
Dr. Carmona said it is never
too late to stop smoking. Quitting smoking at age 65 or older reduces by
nearly 50 percent a person’s risk of dying of a smoking-related disease.
In addition to the 960-page
printed report, The Health Consequences of Smoking, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services released a new interactive
scientific database of more than 1,600 key articles cited in the report,
available through the Internet (www.surgeongeneral.gov).
The database can be used to find detailed information on the specific health
effects of smoking as well as to develop customized analyses, tables and
figures.
The database will be
continually updated as new critical studies are published, allowing the
surgeon general to determine on a regular basis whether the evidence
supports a new definitive conclusion about smoking-caused disease. “Using
this technology, once a threshold of danger is met, we can quickly alert the
American people of new information related to smoking,” Dr. Carmona said.
The report found that for a
number of diseases and conditions associated with smoking, the evidence is
not yet conclusive to establish a causal link. For these illnesses, which
include colorectal cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, and erectile
dysfunction in men, additional studies are needed to reach the threshold of
evidence required by the Surgeon General’s strict causal criteria to declare
that they are causally related to smoking. These criteria were introduced
in the 1964 report and have been updated in the 2004 report using new
uniform standards.
For breast cancer, the
evidence suggests that there is no causal relationship overall to smoking.
However, the report notes that on a genetic basis, some women may be at
increased risk if they smoke. More research is required to clarify the role
of smoking in the cause and progression of breast cancer.
To help communicate the report
findings as widely as possible, Surgeon General Carmona also unveiled a new
animated Web site for the public showing the hazards of smoking and the
benefits of quitting (www.surgeongeneral.gov).
In addition, a full-color, easy-to-read summary of the report has been
developed for the public.
“The Web site and public
summary of the smoking report are something that I am really proud of,” Dr.
Carmona said. “By preparing materials that people who don’t have a medical
degree can understand we effectively bring the science to people in a way
they can use. Improving the health literacy of Americans by closing the
gap between what health professionals know and the public understands will
have a lasting positive health impact.”
Copies of the full The
Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General and
related materials are available from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health, 1-800-CDC-1311,
www.cdc.gov/tobacco and on the surgeon general’s Web site at
www.surgeongeneral.gov.
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