Mr. Speaker, studies in the U.S. show that smoking causes 415,000 deaths in a year and $50 billion in medical care costs.
Smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death. The immediate causes of death are a wide variety of cancers and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Yet 48 million young Americans still smoke. Twenty-four billion packs of cigarettes are purchased each year. Every pack sold causes $4 of expenditures on smoking related health care.
As 70 per cent of smokers begin before the age of 18 years, discouraging smoking among the young is essential if we are to cope with this problem. It has been shown that the young prefer the most heavily advertised brands. Here in Canada we must discourage our children from smoking.
These facts are from the 1994 issues of the morbidity and mortality weekly report of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 1440 Main Street, Waltham, Massachusetts, 02154. I would be glad to provide extracts to anyone interested.