Smoking affects entire body - report

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Smoking causes a range of diseases never before suspected, including cataracts, acute myeloid leukemia and cervical, kidney, pancreatic and stomach cancers, U.S. Surgeon-General Richard Carmona said on Thursday.

In fact, smoking affects virtually every organ of the body, Carmona said in the newest surgeon-general’s report on smoking.

"We’ve known for decades that smoking is bad for your health, but this report shows that it’s even worse,” Dr. Carmona told a news conference.

“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.”

The report coincides with a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that in 2002, 22.5 percent of U.S. adults described themselves as smokers, down slightly from 2001.

This rate of decline will not be enough to get the national smoking rate down to 12 percent, the goal set by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department for 2010, the CDC said.

Smoking kills an estimated 440,000 Americans a year, Carmona said. He said men who smoke cut their lives short by 13.2 years on average, and female smokers lose 14.5 years.

Smoking costs the country $157 billion each year—$75 billion in direct medical costs and the rest in lost productivity.

The poor and less educated continue to be the biggest smokers, and more efforts need to be directed at these groups to encourage them to quit smoking, the CDC said.

ONE THIRD OF POOR SMOKE

Nearly 33 percent of adults living below the poverty level smoked, compared with 22 percent of those above the poverty level.

One-in-four men and one-in-five women said they were smokers. The CDC survey of 31,000 Americans found that 28.5 percent of those aged 18 to 24 years smoked but just 9.3 percent of those older than 65 did.

The CDC estimates that 45.8 million U.S. adults were smokers in 2002, and 41 percent said they had tried to quit at least once.

The CDC and Carmona said efforts need to be stepped up to help people kick the habit, including quit-lines and assistance programs.

Carmona highlighted corporate programs such as one at Union-Pacific called “Butt Out and Breathe” that has reduced employee smoking rates from 40 percent in 1992 to 27 percent in 2003.

Some groups said the government needed to get much tougher on the tobacco industry.

“At the federal level, a good place to start would be the pending proposals in Congress to give authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco just as it regulates other products,” said American Heart Association chief executive officer M. Cass Wheeler.

States should raise tobacco taxes and ban all smoking in public places, Wheeler added.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids agreed but was pessimistic.

“The House (of Representatives) leadership is concocting another backroom deal to protect the tobacco industry while deliberately avoiding any action that would reduce the death toll from tobacco use,” said Campaign president Matthew Myers. 

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