Ninety-five per cent of lung cancer deaths are due directly to cigarette smoking", according to Dr Desmond Carney, oncologist at University College, Dublin, and secretary general of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Women who smoke increase their risk of dying from lung cancer by nearly 12 times and the risk of dying from bronchitis and emphysema by more than 10 times. Between 1960 and 1990, deaths from lung cancer among women have increased by more than 400%--exceeding breast cancer deaths in the mid-1980s.(Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1993;42(44)) The American Cancer Society predicts that 80,000 women will develop lung cancer this year and 67,000 will die from it, as compared to 43,500 deaths from breast cancer.

Men who smoke increase their risk of death from lung cancer by more than 22 times and from bronchitis and emphysema by nearly 10 times. Smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women. (CDC Smoking-attributable mortality and years of potential life lost--United States, 1990. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1993;42(33):645-8.)