More US women risk smoking deaths

Smoking is causing the deaths of a higher proportion of American women than in the past, with lung cancer becoming the biggest cancer-related killer.

The American Surgeon General, David Satcher, says in a report that one-in-four smoking-related deaths now affect women.

His report analysing the deaths of one-hundred-and-sixty-five thousand women two years ago from causes attributable to smoking -- including cancer and heart disease -- showed that poorer women and ill-educated teenagers were more likely to smoke and damage their health.

Mr Satcher said the statistics showed that women who smoked like men, died like men.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service