Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 1, 1991                   TAG: 9102010194
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

DEATHS RISE IN SMOKERS OF '50S, '60S

The national Centers for Disease Control reported that 434,175 Americans died from smoking in 1988, up 11 percent from the 390,000 deaths attributed to smoking in a 1985 study.

Those numbers reflect a steady, deadly trend, CDC researchers said. Back in 1965, the calculated toll from smoking deaths was 188,000.

"The problem is, we are now paying for what happened 20, 30 years ago, when large numbers of people smoked in large amounts," said Dr. William Roper, director of the Atlanta-based CDC.

"Even though the percentage of Americans now smoking is lower than in the past, the burden of the past practice is coming clear."

That burden includes more than 100,000 annual deaths from lung cancer, the leading cause of smoking-related deaths, Roper noted. The CDC reported 111,985 smoking-related lung cancer deaths for 1988, up from 106,000 in 1985 and 38,100 in 1965.

"It takes 10, 20 years for the cancer caused by smoking to result," he said.

Smoking also resulted in 48,896 other cancer deaths, such as mouth cancers and pancreatic cancer, in 1988; 201,002 deaths from cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and arterial disease; and 82,857 deaths from respiratory diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema, among other causes.

The CDC also said 3,825 Americans died from lung cancer caused by others' smoking, or passive smoke. But the CDC's statistical formulas do not yet include passive smoking deaths from heart diseases, which a recent study estimated at 37,000 a year.

Roper said health officials hope the increasing death toll from smoking will turn around, given recent trends toward stopping smoking.

CDC researchers estimate that about 29 percent of Americans smoke, down from 30 percent in 1985 and 40 percent in 1964, the year of the landmark surgeon general's warning against smoking.

"We've seen a reduction in smoking percentages for several years now, and I hope that by the year 2000 . . . we're going to begin to see a decline in actual numbers of smoking-attributable illnesses and deaths," Roper said.

"But that's heavily dependent on behavior patterns right now, and we're anxious to get the message especially to young people, young women, who tend to be the largest percentage smokers."

CDC surveys show that women are slower to give up the habit than men, and that Americans younger than 44 smoke more than older people.

The CDC also said the 1988 death rate attributable to smoking was 12 percent higher for blacks than for whites.

Roper said that although the death toll continues to climb from previous years of smoking, heavy smokers can still improve their chances if they kick the habit.