Media Release

CONTACT: Robert Marshall, PhD, Assistant Director of Health , 401-222-1017
FOR: Immediate Release
DATE: March 23, 2001

3 Million Women Die from Lung Cancer in US 
HEALTH Director Puts Blame on Tobacco Industry Ads and Promotions

The US Surgeon General released the first national report on women and smoking in 1980. Since then, nearly three million U.S. women have died prematurely from smoking, according to an updated and expanded Surgeon General’s Report released today.

"The health gap between men and women who smoke has narrowed dramatically in the past 20 years," said Patricia A. Nolan, MD, MPH, Director of Rhode Island Department of Health. "As women smoke more like men, they experience the same increases in smoking-related diseases—such as lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. This is not the kind of equality women have sought. In fact, it shows how women are targeted by advertising that panders to glamour to the detriment of women’s health."

The Federal Trade Commission reports that cigarette companies spent $8.24 billion on advertising and promotions in 1999 in the U.S., a 22.3 percent increase from the $6.73 billion spent in 1998. Some local Rhode Island media continue to carry cigarette ads.

According to U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. "Women not only share the same health risk as men, but are also faced with health consequences that are unique to women, including pregnancy complications, problems with menstrual function, and cervical cancer," Dr. Satcher said.

The Surgeon General’s report calls for a number of responses:

• increasing public awareness of the devastating impact of smoking on women’s health;
• exposing and countering the tobacco industry’s targeting of women;
• encouraging policymakers, educators, medical professionals, and women’s organizations to work for policies and programs that de-glamorize tobacco use;
• reducing disparities related to tobacco use among different ethnic/racial populations;
• decreasing nonsmokers’ exposure to environmental tobacco smoke;
• mounting comprehensive statewide tobacco control programs to prevent tobacco use.

For a full copy of Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General and other related information go to the CDC Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco