Select Committee on Standards and Privileges First Report


APPENDIX 60 - Continued

APPENDIX F

House of Commons Research Paper 94/22


TOBACCO ADVERTISING BILL

4. Deaths attributable to smoking

  The Smoking Epidemic: A manifesto for action in England[46] contains estimates of the actual numbers of deaths caused by smoking in the UK, for the year 1988. In that (typical) year 110,692 deaths were caused by smoking, amounting to 17 per cent of all deaths of people aged 35 and over. The precise figure quoted should not be taken to imply an ability to ascribe deaths to smoking in individual cases; people die of heart attacks, for example, for other reasons. [47] A proportion of the deaths arising from smoking can be obtained by taking into account the smoking habits of the British population, and using a knowledge of risk factors obtained from epidemiological surveys.

  The penultimate column of the table below gives the number of deaths, in the UK in 1988, due to the main smoking-related diseases. The third column demonstrates how large a role smoking plays in the deaths from each disease; for example, 40 per cent of deaths due to cancer of the bladder are attributable to smoking.

Table A1.1.

Estimates of percentages and numbers of deaths attributable to smoking, UK 1988

Attributable percentageAttributable deaths  
MenWomenAllMenWomenAllPer Cent.
Coronary heart disease24111823,5738,53632,10929.0
Cerebrovascular disease (stroke)197125,5073,4928,9998.1
Aortic aneurism and atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease 44 15 29 2,433 472 2,905 2.6
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease80697615,5256,46321,98819.9
Cancer of the lung86698123,9088,43732,34529.2
Cancer of the buccal cavity, oesophagus, larynx8448714,4681,4785,9465.4
Cancer of the bladder4529401,6514912,1421.9
Cancer of the kidney49732774718450.8
Cancer of the pancreas2230267161,0651,7811.6
Cancer of the cervix - 2929 - 5885880.5
Ulcer of stomach and duodenum2420225175271,0440.9
Total - - - 79,07231,620110,692100.0


The Smoking Epidemic also provides information in terms of life expectancy. A 35-year-old woman who smokes can expect to live five years fewer than a non-smoker. For a 35 year-old-man the figure is seven years; or, to put it another way, these smokers lose on average more than one day of life every week.

7 February 1994


46   The Smoking Epidemic: A manifesto for action in England Health Education Authority 1992. Back

47   "Smoking accepted on death certificates" BMJ 3 October 1992 pp. 829-30. Back


 
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