The Nation - News from Feb. 18, 1985

The number of smoking-related deaths--from many diseases and even fires--has doubled in the last 20 years and now accounts for 500,000 each year, an epidemiologist reported in Population and Development Review. “The way it is going, there’s not much basis for optimism in terms of any rapid decline in mortality until we get a substantial drop in smoking,” said R. T. Ravenholt, director of World Health Surveys Inc. in Bethesda, Md. Ravenholt said about 147,000 cancer deaths, 240,000 deaths related to heart disease, 61,000 deaths from respiratory diseases other than cancer, 4,000 deaths from injuries--such as from fires--and thousands of other deaths are related to smoking.