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(Circulation. 2005;112:456-458.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Effective Interventions to Reduce Smoking-Induced Heart Disease Around the World

Time to Act

Joaquin Barnoya, MD, MPH; Stella Aguinaga Bialous, RN, DrPH; Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

From the Unidad de Cirugia Cardiovascular de Guatemala, Guatemala (J.B.), the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco (J.B., S.A.G.), Tobacco Policy International, San Francisco (S.A.B.), and the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (S.A.G.).

Correspondence to Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Room 366 Library 530 Parnassus, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390. E-mail glantz@medicine.ucsf.edu

Key Words: Editorials • smoking • death • prevention • epidemiology

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Tobacco is a leading cause of preventable death worldwide. For 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 5 million deaths were attributable to smoking.¹ This issue of Circulation contains a detailed analysis of the 1.62 million deaths that smoking contributes to global and regional cause-specific mortality from cardiovascular disease.² Ezzati et al estimate that >1 in 10 cardiovascular deaths (11%) is caused by smoking. More deaths occurred in men than in women and in industrialized than in developing countries. Nevertheless, smoking is an important contributor to cardiac deaths (17% for men and 5% for women) in both industrialized and developing countries.

See p 489

The implications of the results of the study by Ezzati et al are simple and straightforward. If smoking did not exist, then 1.62 million cardiovascular deaths would not have occurred. Even in regions where the number of deaths attributable to smoking was low, thousands of deaths could be prevented. In addition, the finding that regions with a longer history of smoking had the largest percentage of total cardiovascular mortality attributable to smoking is a warning sign for countries in which the tobacco industry is just beginning to spread the smoking epidemic.

Cardiovascular health can be improved quickly through sound public health measures that have an impact at a population level.³ Smoke-free workplaces and public places, comprehensive advertising bans, increased taxation on tobacco products, and strong graphic warning labels on cigarette packs quickly reduce tobacco consumption^3,4 and, thus, cardiovascular disease. For example, in California, a strong . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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