HEALTH REPORT - Surgeon General Links More Diseases to Smoki

HEALTH REPORT - Surgeon General Links More Diseases to Smoking
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, June 16, 2004

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Tobacco is even more dangerous than doctors have known. A new report says smoking causes disease in almost every organ in the body. The report is from the top government doctor in the United States, Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

The Office of the Surgeon General released its first report about smoking and health forty years ago. In nineteen-sixty-four, the surgeon general announced research establishing that smoking caused several diseases. These included cancer of the lungs and voice box.

Later studies found that smoking causes other kinds of cancer and disease. Research also showed that cigarettes harm the babies of women who smoke.

The newest report expands the list of conditions caused by smoking. New ones added include leukemia, cataracts¹ and pneumonia³. Smoking is now also known to cause cancers of the cervix, kidneys, pancreas and stomach.

Health officials say smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease. An estimated four-hundred-forty-thousand Americans per year die of smoking-related diseases. The report says more than twelve-million have died since the first report forty years ago. Research has shown that the poorest and least educated are the ones most likely to smoke.

The new report says that on average, smokers⁵ die thirteen to fourteen years before non-smokers. Smoking also harms others who have to breathe around a smoker⁴, such as children at home. And it causes economic harm, including high medical costs and lost productivity.

Some gains have been made. In nineteen-sixty-five, about forty-two percent of adults in the United States smoked. Now the estimate is about twenty-two percent. The government wants to reduce that to twelve percent by two-thousand-ten. But the report says rates of reduction among adults and young people have slowed.

Public health groups say federal and state officials need to take stronger action. Congress is considering legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration control over cigarettes.

Some are called "light" or "low tar²." But Doctor Carmona says these are no healthier. He says there is no safe cigarette. The only good news for smokers in the surgeon general's report is that their health begins to improve immediately after they stop.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk.

1 cataracts   

n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障

参考例句：

• The rotor cataracts water over the top of the machines. 回转轮将水从机器顶上注入。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Cataracts of rain flooded the streets. 倾盆大雨弄得街道淹水。 来自辞典例句

2 tar   

n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于

参考例句：

• The roof was covered with tar.屋顶涂抹了一层沥青。
• We use tar to make roads.我们用沥青铺路。

3 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

4 smoker   

n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室

参考例句：

• His wife dislikes him to be a smoker.他妻子不喜欢他当烟民。
• He is a moderate smoker.他是一个有节制的烟民。

5 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。