 |
Number of Deaths Attributed to
Smoking as a Percentage of Total Deaths by Age and Sex, 1990 |
|
Males |
Females |
Cause |
35-69 |
70+ |
35-69 |
70+ |
Lung cancer |
52.0 |
47.1 |
8.1 |
21.4 |
All cancers |
23.2 |
18.8 |
3.3 |
5.7 |
Vascular |
15.9 |
14.8 |
4.4 |
4.5 |
Respiratory / T.B. |
11.7 |
24.5 |
3.2 |
6.7 |
All other |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
All causes |
13.0 |
12.2 |
2.7 |
3.6 |
|
Source:
Source: Liu, B.Q., Peto, R., Chen,
Z.M., Boreham, J., Wu,Y.P., Li, J.Y., Campbell, T.C. and Chen, J.S.
(1998). Emerging tobacco hazards in China: 1. Retrospective
proportional mortality study of one million deaths.
British Medical Journal
317 (7170): 1411-1422.
Peto, R., Chen, Z.M. and Boreham, J. (1999). Tobacco – the growing
epidemic. Nature
Medicine 5(1): 15-17
Note: The original table was recalculated into percentages. |
Almost two decades ago, smoking was
already a major health problem in China. According to a study
published in the British Medical Journal, some 13 percent of all
male deaths in 1990 were smoking-related. More than half of all
deaths due to lung cancer among men age 35-69 were related to
smoking.
This situation has almost certainly
further deteriorated during the past two decades, as more people in
China now can afford to smoke and smoking has become a sign of
prosperity and modernization. Today, smoking among men is probably
the most serious public health problem in China - far more
serious than HIV/AIDS or SARS. |
|