Beti Thompson edits chapter of Surgeon General's smoking report

Science Article

Dr. Beti Thompson, an investigator in the Public Health Sciences Division, contributed to the Surgeon General's Report on Women and Smoking, issued March 27.

The report, which asserts that smoking-related diseases have become a full-blown epidemic among women, is the first such document to be released in 20 years.

Thomspson, a member of the Cancer Prevention Research Program, edited a chapter entitled "Efforts to Reduce Tobacco Use Among Women."

Findings in the chapter included that a higher percentage of women stop smoking during pregnancy than at other times in their lives, and that women fear weight gain during smoking cessation more than do men.

Other findings include:

• Lung cancer bypassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among American women in 1987.
• Since 1980, three million U.S. women have died prematurely from smoking-related diseases
• Smoking prevalence is highest among Native American/Alaska Native women, at 34.5 percent
• Smoking prevalence is lowest among Asian/Pacific Islander women, at 11.2 percent
• Ninety percent of lung-cancer deaths among U.S. women are attributable to smoking.

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