In Missouri in 1995, it is estimated that over 10,729 deaths, nearly one in five, were hastened by the decedent's smoking. Rather, death certificates list disease conditions, and we know from epidemiological studies that smoking increases the risk of death from certain diseases. The most common are heart disease, lung cancer, and obstructive lung disease. We can use our knowledge of the increased risk caused by smoking to estimate the numbers of deaths attributable to smoking. Of course, not all deaths due to the diseases listed above are due to smoking.
Smoking is the cause of a larger proportion of deaths due to some diseases than others.
For example, the first number in the table indicates that men who smoke are 27.5 times more likely to die of oral cancers than are men of the same age who never smoked. The changes across time indicated by these numbers reflect changes in overall mortality due to those conditions. On the other hand, some death rates due to cardiovascular causes decreased. The atherosclerosis rate halved and the heart disease death rate decreased from 369.3 to 344.7 per 100,000 population. There is a sharp difference between the patterns for males and females.