Smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death and disease in Canada.
It is estimated that smoking prematurely kills three times more Canadians than car accidents, suicides, drug abuse, murder and AIDS combined. In 1991, smoking-related deaths accounted for about 62 per cent of the overall increase in deaths from 1989. Female smoking-related deaths are rising faster than those of their male counterparts. The number of smoking deaths among women increased from 9,009 in 1985 to 13,541 in 1991. The number of deaths among men remained relatively constant throughout this period at about 27,500.