Smoking remains leading cause of premature death in US

Fifty years after the US surgeon general’s 1964 landmark report that identified smoking as a leading cause of cancer and heart disease, smoking remains the leading cause of premature disease and death in the United States, says a new report issued by the current acting surgeon general, Boris D Lushniak. 1 2

Although the prevalence of cigarette smoking has fallen over the past five decades since the 1964 report from 42% to 18% in 2012, more than 42 million people in the US still smoke, the report …