This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Tobacco is even more dangerous than doctors have known. A newreport says smoking causes disease in almost every organ in thebody. The report is from the top government doctor in the UnitedStates, Surgeon General Richard Carmona.
The Office of the Surgeon General released its first report aboutsmoking and health forty years ago. In nineteen-sixty-four, thesurgeon general announced research establishing that smoking causedseveral diseases. These included cancer of the lungs and voice box.
Later studies found that smoking causes other kinds of cancer anddisease. Research also showed that cigarettes harm the babies ofwomen who smoke.
The newest report expands the list of conditions caused bysmoking. New ones added include leukemia, cataracts and pneumonia.Smoking is now also known to cause cancers of the cervix, kidneys,pancreas and stomach.
Health officials say smoking is the leading preventable cause ofdeath and disease. An estimated four-hundred-forty-thousandAmericans per year die of smoking-related diseases. The report saysmore than twelve-million have died since the first report fortyyears ago. Research has shown that the poorest and least educatedare the ones most likely to smoke.
The new report says that on average, smokers die thirteen tofourteen years before non-smokers. Smoking also harms others whohave to breathe around a smoker, such as children at home. And itcauses economic harm, including high medical costs and lostproductivity.
Some gains have been made. In nineteen-sixty-five, aboutforty-two percent of adults in the United States smoked. Now theestimate is about twenty-two percent. The government wants to reducethat to twelve percent by two-thousand-ten. But the report saysrates of reduction among adults and young people have slowed.
Public health groups say federal and state officials need to takestronger action. Congress is considering legislation to give theFood and Drug Administration control over cigarettes.
Some are called "light" or "low tar." But Doctor Carmona saysthese are no healthier. He says there is no safe cigarette. The onlygood news for smokers in the surgeon general's report is that theirhealth begins to improve immediately after they stop.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by CynthiaKirk.