Smoking deaths under-reported

[rolygate]

BBC News - Today - Are smoking deaths under-reported?

An interesting comment by a pathologist on why smoking is hardly ever cited as the cause of death in the UK (cited in 2 deaths ex 2,000 as against the more likely 220+).

 

[rothenbj]

The true cause of almost all deaths is living too long for the condition of the body. My mom at 92 has a pre-existing, chronic condition at this point.

 

[Nicko]

I don't think smoking is an actual cause of death. It's a risk factor for developing a disease. Lung cancer for example. I mean, if someone died of complications from diabetes, would we say they died because of eating sugar? Even people who have never smoked get many of the same kind of diseases that are common amongst smokers, albeit in smaller numbers. So it just doesn't make any sense to automatically assume that smoking was the cause of death. It makes as much sense as saying "not smoking" was the cause of death.

My point is that smoking is merely a behaviour. It can not logically be applied as a cause of death for a death certificate. Maybe the only exception might be if a non-smoker smoked one cigarette and immediately dropped dead, and the post-mortem found no cause for the sudden death. Somehow I doubt that's ever happened.

 

[rolygate]

A death certificate apparently has two parts, and there is space for (a) the disease/condition that did 'em in, and (b) the underlying reason why they had the disease that did it (if applicable). So it should be filled in with e.g. Lung Cancer -- Smoking.

Listen to the audio, the pathologist makes that very clear - you fill in 'lung cancer' then 'smoking' if that's what the probable cause of the lung cancer was (and it only needs to be probable cause). The whole point of that piece is that pathologists aren't completing death certificates correctly due to idealogical pressure. If the patient was a New Leper then their family want it covered up. Even legal processes and national statistics are being perverted by this pressure.