Mortality from Smoking in Developed Countries, 1950-2000: Indirect Estimates from National Vital Statistics

Recent studies have shown that in developed countries, smokers are more likely to die before age 70 than are non-smokers, and the proportion is increasing. For each major developed country, and for various groups of such countries, tables and graphs are provided that describe the extent to which smoking is now causing death in middle and in old age. The main purpose of this book is to facilitate effective communication, first to the reader and then by the reader, of the extraordinary magnitude of the number of deaths that smoking is now causing. In developed countries alone, the habit is currently responsible for about two million deaths a year, about half of which are deaths in middle age. There is, however, wide variation between one developed country and another in the current death rates from smoking, and the trends in those deaths. These variations are also described in the book. Mortality from Smoking in Developed Countries is an authoritative and revealing study that will be invaluable to epidemiologists and public health specialists.