Women, Smoking and Life Insurance

It is a fact that has been documented since 1980, when the first U-S Surgeon General´s Report on women and smoking was released; cigarette smoking plays a major role in shortening a woman´s life. Since then, about three million women have died prematurely of smoking-related diseases, including lung and other cancers, heart disease, stroke, and chronic lung diseases such as Emphysema.The number one cancer killer of women is lung cancer. 90% of all lung cancer deaths among U.S. women smokers are attributable to smoking.

The link between smoking and other cancers among women is strong, especially cancer of the mouth, bladder, pancreas and kidney. Smoking is consistently associated with an increased risk for cervical cancer.

Heart disease is still the leading cause of death among both men and women in this country and smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular heart disease among women. Risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked and the duration of smoking.

As for health issues that are unique to women, research shows female smokers have natural menopause at a younger age than do nonsmokers, and they may experience more severe menopausal symptoms.

As women age, another health risk emerges among women smokers: bone density and fracture risk . There is medical evidence that postmenopausal women smokers have thinner bones than women who never smoked.

If those sobering statistics don’t alarm you, consider the cost of smoking. It isn’t hard to figure out how much you spend on smoking: multiply how much money you spend on tobacco every day by 365 (days per year). Now multiply that by the number of years you have been using tobacco and that amount will probably around you. Multiply the cost per year by 10 (for the upcoming 10 years) and ask yourself what you would rather do with that much money.

And this doesn’t include the higher costs for health and life insurance coverage, as well as the possible health care costs due to tobacco-related conditions. On average, cigarette smokers pay about double the rates for term life insurance coverage than non-smokers.

*Information provided by The U-S Surgeon General´s Report