Smoking vs Other Risk Factors as the Cause of Smoking-Attributable Deaths

Abstract

The US surgeon general attributes to cigarette smoking approximately 400,000 deaths annually, approximately one fifth of all deaths that occur in the United States.¹ Tobacco industry defendants criticize these estimates,^2,3 arguing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) method of estimating "smoking-attributable" deaths^4,5 adjusts for age and sex, but fails to consider the lower socioeconomic and educational status and associated dietary, occupational, and other risk factors of modern smokers,^6-13 thereby exaggerating the burden of mortality attributed to smoking.