Smoking vs Other Risk Factors as the Cause of Smoking-Attributable Deaths

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Abstract
The US surgeon general attributes to cigarette smoking approximately 400,000 deaths annually, approximately one fifth of all deaths that occur in the United States.1 Tobacco industry defendants criticize these estimates,2,3 arguing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) method of estimating "smoking-attributable" deaths4,5 adjusts for age and sex, but fails to consider the lower socioeconomic and educational status and associated dietary, occupational, and other risk factors of modern smokers,6-13 thereby exaggerating the burden of mortality attributed to smoking.