Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Population
Control
Risk, Human Health, and Toxicology
CASE STUDY
The Big Killer
the age of 30, they can avoid nearly all the risk of dy-
ing prematurely.
Many health experts urge that a $3-5 federal tax
be added to the price of a pack of cigarettes in the
United States. The users of cigarettes (and other to-
bacco products)—not the rest of society—would then
pay a much greater share of the $158 billion per year
in health, economic, and social costs associated with
their smoking.
Other suggestions for reducing the death toll
and the health effects of smoking in the United States
(and in other countries) include banning all cigarette
advertising, prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and other
tobacco products to anyone younger than 21 (with
strict penalties for violators), and banning cigarette
vending machines. Analysts also call for classifying
and regulating the use of nicotine as an addictive and
dangerous drug, eliminating all federal subsidies and
tax breaks to tobacco farmers and tobacco companies,
and using cigarette tax income to finance an aggres-
sive antitobacco advertising and education program.
So far, the U.S. Congress has not enacted such reforms.
What is roughly the diameter of a 30-caliber bullet,
can be bought almost anywhere, is highly addictive,
and kills about 13,700 people every day, or one every
6 seconds? A cigarette.
Cigarette smoking is the world's
most preventable major cause of suffering and premature
death among adults.
According to the World Health Organization
(WHO), tobacco helped kill 85 million people between
1950 and 2005—almost three times the 30 million peo-
ple killed in battle in all wars since 1900!
The WHO estimates that each year tobacco con-
tributes to the premature deaths of at least 5 million
people (about half from developed countries and half
from developing countries) from 34 illnesses includ-
ing
heart disease, lung cancer, other cancers, bronchitis,
emphysema,
and
stroke.
By 2030, the annual death toll
from smoking-related diseases is projected to reach
10 million—an average of 27,400 preventable deaths
per day or 1 death every 3 seconds. About 70% of
these deaths are expected to occur in developing
countries.
According to a 2002 study by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking kills
about 440,000 Americans per year prematurely
—
an
average of 1,205 deaths per day (Figure 14-1). This
death toll is roughly equivalent to three fully loaded
400-passenger jumbo jets crashing
every day
with no
survivors! Yet, this ongoing major human tragedy
rarely makes the news.
The overwhelming consensus in the scientific
community is that the nicotine inhaled in tobacco
smoke is highly addictive. Only 1 in 10 people
who try to quit smoking succeeds, about the same
relapse rate as for recovering alcoholics and those
addicted to heroin or crack cocaine. A British
government study showed that adolescents who
smoke more than one cigarette have an 85% chance
of becoming smokers. People can also be exposed
to secondhand smoke from others, called
passive
smoking.
A 50-year study published in 2004 by Richard
Doll and Richard Peto found that cigarette smokers
die on average 10 years earlier than nonsmokers
but that kicking the habit—even at 50 years old—can
cut a person's risk in half. If people quit smoking by
x
H
OW
W
OULD
Y
OU
V
OTE
?
Do you favor classifying and
regulating nicotine as an addictive and dangerous drug? Cast
your vote online at http://biology.brookscole.com/miller11.
Cause of Death
Deaths
Tobacco use
442,000
Accidents
101,500 (43,450 auto)
Alcohol use
Infectious
diseases
Pollutants/toxins
85,000
75,000 (14,200 from AIDS)
55,000
Suicides
30,600
Homicides
20,622
Illegal drug use
17,000
Figure 14-1
Annual deaths in the United States from tobacco use and
other causes in 2003. Smoking is by far the nation's leading cause of pre-
ventable death, causing more premature deaths each year than all the
other categories in this figure combined. (Data from U.S. National Center
for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
U.S. Surgeon General)
