Palm Beach, Fla, August 15, 2005 - As the nation celebrates the 85th anniversary of the women’s right to vote this Women’s Equality Day, August 26th, Smoke Free Society, a nonprofit dedicated to helping smokers quit and educating kids not to start, draws attention to the effects of tobacco-related diseases on women.

“An estimated 20% of adult U.S. women aged 18 years or older (more than 1 of 5) are current cigarette smokers and nearly 70% of them want to quit, but they need help! Many years ago, glamorized advertising linked women’s liberation with smoking, such as ‘You've come a long way, baby’. Times have changed for the better and it’s time for us women to take more control of our lives,” said Linda Seyedin, Executive Director of Smoke Free Society.

The recent Surgeon General’s report on the health effects of smoking recognized the 40th anniversary since the first report was issued when only men were identified as suffering from tobacco-related diseases. In those 40 years, researchers have found that both men and women suffer from tobacco-related diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that women are faced with the following health and mortality affects from smoking:

90% of female lung cancer deaths are
caused by smoking.

• Since 1950, lung cancer deaths among women have increased by more than 600%. By 1987, lung cancer had surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women.
• Smoking kills an estimated 178,000 women in the United States annually. The three leading smoking-related causes of death in women are lung cancer (44,000), heart disease (41,000), and chronic lung disease (37,500).
• Women who smoke have an increased risk for other cancers, including cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx (voice box), esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and uterine cervix.
• Women who smoke double their risk for developing coronary heart disease and increase, by more than 10-fold, their likelihood of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Cigarette smoking increases the risk for infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked. Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than those who never smoked.