Smoking Kills 480,000 American Per Year According to New Surgeon General Report
Posted on January 17, 2014
The Surgeon General has released an extensive new report about smoking and its numerous negative health consequences. An executive summary of the report can be found here (PDF) on surgeongeneral.gov. The report comes out 50 years after the 1964 Surgeon General's report - the very first Surgeon General report that concluded smoking causes lung cancer. The report says smoking kills 480,000 Americans per year. It says one out of every 13 children under age 18 will die prematurely from smoking-related diseases unless current smoking rates drop.
The report also links more diseases to smoking. It has been linked to disease in nearly every organ in the body. Some of the recently linked diseases to smoking include diabetes, colorectal and liver cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction and age-related macular degeneration.
CNN talked to New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley about what can be done to get people to quit the deadly habit. Take a look: