Smoking cigarettes is correctly perceived by much of the public to be the most common cause of lung cancer. Knowledge that smoking is also one of the most powerful causes of cardiac disease is generally less well known.
Now, investigators from Boston and Australia report in last week’s issue of Lancet that, among smokers, cardiovascular disease (and not cancer) is the leading cause of death worldwide.
They report that, worldwide, there were 1,690,000 premature deaths from cardiovascular disease among smokers in the year 2000. In contrast, there were “only” 850,000 lung cancer deaths from smoking in the same year. All smoking-related cancer deaths needed to be added together (including cancers such as bladder, mouth, esophagus, etc.) to approach the number of smoking-related cardiac deaths (1,470,000 total cancer deaths). Coming in third in the smoking-related premature death race was emphysema, with about 1,000,000 deaths.
DrRich is not sure how this new information will impact the competition for donations among the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Lung Association. It does, however, enable tobacco companies to offer a reassuring “No, absolutely not,” when asked the perennial question by their customers, “If I continue to smoke am I destined to suffer a painful death from cancer?”
