Anti-smoking campaigns: Fewer deaths from smoking

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MunichSmoking is one of the greatest health risks - in the USA alone, almost 18 million people have died as a result of smoking in the past 50 years. A new study shows that it could have been significantly more: Eight million Americans only escaped premature smoking death because the country has been making tobacco consumption more difficult through campaigns and laws for half a century.

Unpopular cigarettes

Warnings on packets of cigarettes, high tobacco taxes, advertising restrictions and smoking bans in pubs, restaurants and discos: For years, many US states have been pulling out all the stops with anti-tobacco campaigns to warn of the deadly consequences of smoking and to make tobacco use as unpopular as possible . A team of scientists led by Theodore Holford from Yale University has now investigated how successful these measures are.

Smoking behavior since cowboy times

Using data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics between 1965 and 2009, the researchers obtained information about people's smoking habits since the beginning of the 20th century. They compared these with death statistics from large studies and thus determined the deaths caused by tobacco. A model that finally allowed the scientists to create alternative scenarios, such as what would have happened if the tobacco control campaigns had not been introduced.

Protect anti-smoking campaigns

The results were impressive: The anti-smoking campaigns in the USA saved 5.3 million men and 2.7 million women from dying prematurely as a result of tobacco consumption, according to Holford.

Longer life expectancy, fewer cancer deaths

The recent progress is even more encouraging. If around eleven percent more people had died from the effects of smoking in the first decade of this millennium without the current laws, between 2004 and 2012 even 48 percent would not have survived the effects of smoking.

"Today a 40-year-old man has an average life expectancy of 7.8 years longer than in 1964," said Holford. 30 percent of this gain in life was due to successful anti-tobacco campaigns. These would have proven to be very successful for national health.

For example, current cancer statistics from the American Cancer Society show that fewer and fewer people are dying as a result of cancer. Lung cancer - which is particularly often triggered by tobacco smoke - also contributes to this positive result.

Nevertheless, according to the scientists, more needs to be done to expand this trend. Because even though tobacco consumption has declined steadily over the past few decades, around 44 million Americans still smoke. (jb)

Source: Holford, T. et al. Tobacco Control and the Reduction in Smoking-Related Premature Deaths in the United States, 1964-2012. The Journal of the American Medical Association.

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