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Tobacco: still a
big problem
By DR. DEBORAH SMITH
Rappahannock Neva Contributing Writer
Now that school is in session and there is much talk about cigarette smoking on high school campuses, I would like to discuss a major preventable health problem: tobacco use.
Nearly 350,000 deaths each year are attributed to cigarette smoking. That is as many people as died during all of World War II, and twice as many as were killed during the wars in Vietnam, Korea and the first World War combined.
These deaths are not only caused by illnesses. Nearly 1,500 people die every year from smoking related fires. Another 4,000 are injured by accidental fires.
Tobacco-related diseases include heart disease and strokes, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, stomach ulcers and various cancers of the mouth, the esophagus, the bladder and the lungs.
More than 90 percent of all lung cancer is thought to be caused by cigarette smoking. In women, lung cancer, is now the leading cause of death from any cancer, having recently overtaken breast cancer.
The average cigarette smoker dies 5 to 8 years before the average non-smoker; each cigarette smoked takes 5.5 minutes off the smoker’s life.
Pregnant women who smoke harm their unborn babies and smoking in an enclosed space is believed to be hazardous to the non-smoker also. Less serious problems associated with cigarette smoking include yellow teeth, gum irritation,
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