By Staff Reports
(Hawaii)– From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Fifty years after the landmark Surgeon General’s report that linked smoking, disease and death, smoking continues to kill. Smoking rates have fallen since the first report, but you don’t have to look far to find smokers. A new Surgeon General’s report has the latest numbers. Acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak:
“Between now and a year from now, a half million American adults will die from smoking-related diseases.”
Dr. Lushniak says young smokers – who typically start in their teens – are setting themselves upon the same path:
“Five-point-six million kids – that’s 1 out of every 13 – will die prematurely from smoking-related diseases.”
It isn’t easy to quit, but the acting surgeon general says help is available – for instance, from the quitline 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Learn more at Betobaccofree.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.