To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: DG DISPATCH - ATS: Increase in Cigarette Use Precedes Increase in Lung Disease Deaths URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1D0E5E.htm Doctor's Guide May 9, 2000
By Cameron Johnston Special to DG news
TORONTO, CANADA -- May 9, 2000 -- Japan appears to be headed for a catastrophic increase in the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease -- all as a result of the increase in smoking that has been going on since the early 1960s.
A similar study in the United States linked the increase in smoking which took off in the early 1940s with an astronomic increase in COPD in the mid fifties. Now, it appears that a similar trend is about to overtake the Japanese health care authorities.
The dire predictions were made in a presentation Monday (May 8) at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society, by Takateru Izumi, MD, a physician at Shiga Bunka Medical College, in Kyoto, Japan.
Citing statistics from the Japanese Department of Health and Welfare, and the Japanese Tobacco Co., Dr. Izumi said the rate of smoking in Japan increased by 177 per cent between 1960-80. Japanese now consume more than 3,300 cigarettes per capita each year -- approximately nine cigarettes per day for every person over the age of 15.
At the same time, the increase in deaths from COPD began to sky-rocket after 1970 -- increasing by more than 500 per cent by 1995 when there were more than 6,400 deaths from COPD.
The increase in smoking is almost entirely attributable to the economic boom the Japanese began to experience in the 1960s and particularly in the 1980s. Cigarette consumption had fallen throughout the war years, but increased to pre-war levels by 1950.
Meanwhile, kids in Ireland are already paying a steep price for smoking. According to a study conducted jointly by researchers in the Irish republic and in Belfast, North Ireland, 12 per cent of 13- and 14-year-olds are regular smokers.
Investigators say the reports of night-time coughing, cough without cold, and wheezing is almost double among those who smoke compared with those who never smoked. The incidence was slightly lower among those who called themselves ex-smokers.
Most studies in the past, which looked at teenage smoking habits, have focused on people who are 16 years of age and older, explained Eoin Murtagh MB PhD, a research fellow at Belfast City Hospital, and physician at Queen's University, also in Belfast.
"What this tells us is that more young people are taking up the habit a lot younger than we previously thought," he said. "It's as if smoking has now become a pediatric issue, because if the kids are smoking this much at 13 and 14, then we have to ask ourselves how old they were when they started smoking."
Findings that were particularly disturbing, he said are that girls are much more likely to smoke than boys -- approximately 56 per cent versus 45 per cent, respectively -- and that smoking was much more common in the South, as compared with the North -- 60 per cent versus 47 per cent, respectively.
Even among those who did not smoke, half still said they were exposed to passive smoke at home -- and they paid the price for it. One in three reported night-time coughing and one in four reported coughing without having a cold in households where only one parent - usually the mother -- smoked. However, where there were other smokers in the house -- typically a sibling. In this case, 43 per cent of young people who had a sibling who smoked reported night-time coughing and 31 per cent reported coughing without having a cold.
The cost of cigarettes is a major contributig factor that encourages younger people to smoke, he said, adding that a package of 20 cigarettes is less expensive in the South than it is in the North. As it is, a package of cigarettes still costs roughly three times as much in Ireland as it does in the US, and twice as much as they do in Canada. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.