New data reveals that the death rate from lung cancer among UK women has reached its lowest level for 30 years.

In 1970, 60 per cent of the British population smoked, and now the figure is just 27 per cent. It takes many years for lung cancer to develop from a smoking habit, so changes in death rate are seen only decades after changes is smoking habits. Rates of lung cancer in the UK were once among the highest in the world, but in the last 20 years or so they have fallen.

Further evidence for this trend in lung cancer deaths comes from the latest figures reported by the Office of National Statistics. At its peak, in 1988, the death rate from lung cancer among women under 70 was nearly 6000. At the end of 2001 (the latest year for which data is available) it was 4550. In women over 70, the figure was 8500 - a reflection of the boom in women's smoking just after World War Two. As the population ages, there is expected to be a continued fall in the number of women dying from lung cancer - assuming that women do not take up smoking again in large numbers.

Source

Office of National Statistics 31st December 2002