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Smoking is top cause of cancer deaths for womenBy ASSOCIATED PRESS © St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2001 WASHINGTON -- Tobacco became a leading killer of women in just two generations, said a government report released Tuesday as President Bush's health secretary endorsed federal regulation of tobacco if Congress gives him the power to do so. "Speaking only for myself, I think tobacco should be regulated," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told reporters. "It's up to Congress to pass legislation." Women now account for 39 percent of the nation's 400,000-plus smoking-related deaths each year, a proportion that has more than doubled since 1965 -- giving new meaning to that old cigarette ad "You've come a long way, baby." One woman dies from smoking every 31/2 minutes. Yet women may not fully realize the threat: Lung cancer caused by smoking is now the top female cancer killer, claiming 27,000 more women each year than the breast cancer that women dread so much, said Surgeon General David Satcher. About one in five women smokes, a rate that hasn't changed much in a decade. Worse, more teenage girls -- 30 percent -- are smoking now than 10 years ago. Add a dramatic jump in tobacco marketing, to a record $8.2-billion in 1999, or nearly $1-million per hour, and without a major change, the nation won't meet its goal of cutting female smoking in half by 2010, Satcher said. The report urges a major nationwide push to fight back. Satcher pointed to industry ads that lure girls by featuring skinny, sexy women, including a new R.J. Reynolds campaign that says, "Until I find a real man, I'll take a real smoke." "What starts out as a simple puff is turning into a death sentence," said Thompson, pledging to travel the country to preach the "evils of smoking" as his office hunts new anti-tobacco strategies. The last big federal attempt to curb smoking -- Food and Drug Administration tobacco regulation to prevent cigarette companies from targeting minors -- failed in a Supreme Court challenge. Legislation to reopen FDA regulation is pending.
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