Here, have a puff of death

Smokers Die About a Decade Earlier on Average

By Salynn Boyles

WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

Jan. 23, 2013 -- Women who smoke are now just as likely to die of lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases as men -- and smokers of both sexes die, on average, about a decade earlier than non-smokers.

These were among the findings from two major studies examining death rate trends among smokers published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

"The studies highlight the fact that cigarette smoking remains a leading cause of death in the U.S.,” says Steven A. Schroeder, MD, who directs the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

“We tend to think of smoking as a done deal because most upper class, educated people no longer smoke or know people who [no longer] do,” he says. “But it still exerts a huge toll, and the influence of the tobacco companies is still strong.”

(More here.)