Effective Interventions to Reduce Smoking-Induced Heart Disease Around the World

obacco is a leading cause of preventable death world- wide. For 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 5 million deaths were attribut- able to smoking.1 This issue of Circulation contains a detailed analysis of the 1.62 million deaths that smoking contributes to global and regional cause-specific mortality from cardiovas- cular disease.2 Ezzati et al estimate that 1 in 10 cardiovas- cular deaths (11%) is caused by smoking. More deaths occurred in men than in women and in industrialized than in developing countries. Nevertheless, smoking is an important contributor to cardiac deaths (17% for men and 5% for women) in both industrialized and developing countries.