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• U.S. Lengthens the List of Diseases Linked to Smoking 

Four decades after the surgeon general's first report on smoking and health linked cigarette use to lung cancer, larynx cancer and bronchitis, the latest annual report has further expanded the list of smoking-related diseases.

The new report, issued Thursday by Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, concludes that in addition to the many other diseases listed in the intervening years, smoking can cause cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach, as well as abdominal aortic aneurysms, acute myeloid leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and gum disease. Advertisement

The report, Dr. Carmona said at a news briefing, "documents that smoking causes disease in nearly every organ in the body at every stage of life." . . .

Government figures show that 440,000 Americans a year are now dying of smoking-related illnesses, and Dr. Carmona said more than 12 million had died since the first report. Smokers typically die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers, he said.

Treating those diseases costs about $75 billion a year, according to government figures, and an even greater amount is sacrificed in lost productivity. . . .

Of the entire adult population, people 18 or older, smokers now account for only 22 percent.

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