Smoking Shortens Lifespan By 13.2 to 14.5 Years [12/15-4]
Excerpts from: Smoking Shortens Lifespan By 13.2 to 14.5 Years
According to New Hope: Avoiding Lung Cancer, smoking shortens
the lives of American females by 14.5 years and males by 13.2
years. While smoking contributes to heart and other disease, the
public most often connects it with lung cancer. "Lung cancer is
the foremost cancer killer of American men and women," says
author Noel Griese. "More of us die of lung cancer than of
breast, prostate and colon cancer combined." Who is most at risk
of getting lung cancer? People over 55 who have smoked a pack of
cigarettes a day for 20 or more years. Females are somewhat more
vulnerable than males. While lung cancer is the biggest killer
in the cancer family, says the author, it is the easiest to
prevent. Because 87 percent of lung cancer is caused by tobacco,
the easiest way to avoid it is never to begin smoking. Short of
that, says Griese, a past Georgia director of the American
Cancer Society and Americ