Tobacco-related diseases: A 21-year study (1970-1990) of the mortality rate in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil

We studied the smoking-attributable cancer mortality and tobacco-related diseases (TRD:ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cerebrovascular disease) in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, from 1970 to 199O and determined the 'excess' deaths due to tobacco for each disease using Shopland's data. Our data show that neoplasms are the second cause of death in RS accounting for 16.76% of all death's. Of these, 50% are deaths attributable to tobacco among men and almost 30% among women. TRD represented 8.7% of all deaths in 1990. Among tobacco-related neoplasms 50% of male and 30% of female deaths were due to lung cancer in 1990. In relation to ischaemic heart disease in both sexes the age-adjusted death rates (AADR) temporal series were ascendent (p<0.01). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease showed AADR temporal series stable for both sexes. Cerebrovascular disease showed an AADR temporal series ascendent for men (p<0.001) and stable for women.