- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- 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.
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- In fact, smoking affects virtually every organ of the
body, Carmona said in the newest surgeon-general's report on smoking.
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- "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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Smoking costs the country $157 billion each year -- $75
billion in direct medical costs and the rest in lost productivity.
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- 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.
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- ONE THIRD OF POOR SMOKE
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- Nearly 33 percent of adults living below the poverty
level smoked, compared with 22 percent of those above the poverty level.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- The CDC and Carmona said efforts need to be stepped up
to help people kick the habit, including quitlines and assistance programs.
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- 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.
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- Some groups said the government needed to get much tougher
on the tobacco industry.
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- "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.
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- States should raise tobacco taxes and ban all smoking
in public places, Wheeler added.
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- The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids agreed but was pessimistic.
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- "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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- http://news.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5279128
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