Washington, 14 March (EFE).-tobacco policies have decreased the consumption of cigarettes in United States and avoided almost 800,000 deaths from cancer between 1975 and 2000, according to a report published today the journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The Office of the Inspector General of health in the United States.UU. It aired in 1964 its first report on the impact of smoking on health and the study published today points out that if since then would have ceased the consumption of tobacco products “some 2.5 million people had avoided death by lung cancer” in the next 36 years.
“These findings provide a clear illustration of the devastating impact of tobacco use in our country and the enormous benefits that are obtained by reducing the rate of smoking,” said Robert Croyle, director of the Division of Control of cancer and population Sciences at the Institute of cancer.
Croyle added that “Although there has been great progress not we loosen our efforts”.
“The prevention and cessation of tobacco use remained vital priorities in medicine, science and public health,” argued.
Researchers used a method of comparative model within which the detailed records of the patterns of use of cigarettes in individuals born between 1890 and 1970 were built.
Then viewing those stories with mortality rates for lung cancer in mathematical models that allowed them to calculate the impact of the changes in patterns of smoking in the period between 1975 and 2000.
Since 1964, the efforts in the United States.UU. to control the consumption of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing – tobacco have included tax increases, restrictions on areas where is smoking, limits on the purchase of tobacco products by minors and public education on the damage of smoking campaigns.
For their study the researchers created three “scenarios”: one applied data from the real behavior of smokers in the United States.UU.; predicted behaviour that would have occurred without control measures in the second, and the third examined what would have happened if had stopped smoking in 1965.
Scientists calculated that if had not applied control programs and measures of public education on smoking, between 1975 and 2000 had died 552.000 men and 243,000 women rather than those that died of lung cancer in the period.
Could according to their models, if the tobacco control measures had been fully successful have been avoided other 1.7 million deaths from lung cancer, said the article.
“A vast majority of lung cancer deaths could be avoided if smoking should be removed”, said Eric Feuer, one of the authors of the study.
If the tobacco control measures had been fully successful other 1.7 million deaths could have been avoided by lung cancer. EFE/file
