Mortality attributable to tobacco use in Canada and its regions, 1991.

Using the data from the 1991 General Social Survey, Canadian Mortality Database, the 1991 Annual Report of Fire Losses in Canada and previously published estimates of lung cancer deaths attributable to passive smoking, the Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity and Economic Cost method was used to estimate national and regional smoking-attributable mortality (SAM) for 1991. The results indicate that 27,867 men and 13,541 women died as a result of smoking, including 171 children under the age of one. This total of 41,408 deaths represents an increase of 3,051 deaths since 1989, with women accounting for 2,721 of these increased deaths. The increase in female mortality is almost entirely due to adult diseases, equally divided between neoplasms (990), cardiovascular diseases (927) and respiratory diseases (821).