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For additional statistics, please visit Drug
War Facts
Tobacco: estimate 400,000
Estimated 419,000 deaths in 1996, from
CANCER FACTS AND FIGURES factsheet from American Cancer
Society.
Also estimated 500,000 deaths in Europe.
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets.php
Alcohol: estimate 110,000
110,640 in 1996 estimate from the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(total U.S. alcohol-related deaths have averaged between
103-111,000 per year since 1979).
Prescription drugs:
estimate 100,000
106,000 estimate, from a
study published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, April 1998. Excerpt from study::
A new analysis by researchers at the
University of Toronto, who examined 39 studies, estimated
that an average of 106,000 deaths at U.S. hospitals in 1994
were due to bad reactions to drugs. "Serious adverse drug
reactions are frequent ... more so than generally
recognized," the researchers said. "Fatal adverse drug
reactions appear to be between the fourth and sixth leading
cause of death."
Also, 100,000 estimate from: TOO MUCH OF A
GOOD THING? DOCTOR CHALLENGES DRUG MANUAL, published October
12, 1999, New York
Times. Author: Denise Grady. Excerpt from story:
But the doses recommended in the P.D.R.
may be too high for many people and may cause adverse
reactions, ranging from dizziness and nausea all the way to
death, according to an article published last month in the
journal Postgraduate Medicine. He said his findings helped
explain a study published last year by other researchers,
who reported that drug reactions in hospitals were among the
nation's leading causes of death, killing more than 100,000
Americans a year. The deaths that the team studied were not
due to medication errors by doctors or patients; they
occurred in people taking doses thought to be correct.
Suicide: estimate 30,000
30,903 total number of U.S. deaths by
suicide in 1996,
American
Association of Suicidology (AAS)
30,575 total number of U.S. deaths by
suicide in 1998, (AAS)
Murder: estimate 15,000
FBI 1999 Uniform Crime Report shows a
downward trend in total annual murders, from 21,597 in 1995
to 15,533 in 1999.
Aspirin: new estimate
7,600
GI complications caused by NSAIDs lead to
approximately 76,000 hospitalizations and 7,600 deaths
annually -- a mortality rate comparable to that of asthma,
cervical cancer or melanoma (skin cancer). References:
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics (1,2) 1.
Fries JF. NSAID Gastropathy:
The Second Most Deadly Rheumatic Disease?
Epidemiology and Risk Appraisal. Journal of Rheumatology.
1991; 18 (suppl 28): 6. 2. Anderson RN et al.
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics Report of
Final Mortality Statistics, 1995. Monthly Vital Statistics
Report. 1997; 145 (11)(suppl 2).
Marijuana: estimate 0
No information about marijuana-related
deaths exists on the
Website of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. |
