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

DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993                   TAG: 9308270125
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SMOKING'S TOLL TAPERS

The number of Americans dying from cigarette smoking dropped from 434,000 in 1988 to 419,000 in 1990, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - the first such decline since the agency began keeping records in 1985.

The reduction in smoking over the past 30 years "is now resulting in thousands of lives saved each year," said the CDC in a report released Thursday. But even so, it said, "Smoking is still responsible for one of every five deaths in the U.S."

"It's good news, but smoking remains by far the biggest cause of preventable death and disease in our society," said Karen Lewis of the Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit group that campaigns against smoking.

Michael Eriksen, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said the decline in the annual number of deaths, after adjusting for population changes and other demographic changes, results primarily from reduction of heart disease caused by smoking.

Researchers calculate deaths from smoking based on studies that compare the incidence of a disease among smokers and non-smokers in various communities and population groups. Based on these studies, a standard table has been developed to show what proportion of deaths from a given disease can be ascribed to smoking, after adjusting for age, population group and sex.

The 418,690 deaths in 1990 attributable to smoking included 275,147 men, 141,832 women and 1,711 infants affected by their mothers' smoking. Women traditionally smoke less than men, the report said. Infants whose mothers smoke have low birthweights more often than the children of nonsmokers, and low-birthweight children have higher than normal infant normal infant mortality rates.

Deaths attributable to smoking resulted primarily from cardiovascular disease (about 180,000 deaths), followed by lung cancer (120,000) and respiratory diseases (about 85,000).

In 1965, shortly after a now-famous report by the Surgeon General of the U.S. first officially warned of the health dangers of smoking, 42.4 percent of adults smoked. From that high point, Eriksen said, the proportion of smokers declined steadily to 25.5 percent by 1990. However, the proportion of smokers unexpectedly rose slightly to 25.7 percent in 1991, an increase Eriksen attributed to the advent of cheaper discount-brand cigarettes.

Eriksen noted that the government spends about $1 million a year on anti-smoking campaigns through radio and TV ads and other advertising, while the tobacco industry spends $4 billion on ads and promotion to foster smoking.

He said the death rate among white adults attributable to cigarette smoking was 389 per 100,000 persons in 1988, compared with 437 for blacks. A higher proportion of blacks (about 29 percent) smoke than whites (25.5 percent).

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB