The evidence presented here relates to death from any cause. Data on cause of death were not available at the time this study was conducted. International evidence shows that the vast majority of excess deaths in smokers are caused by smoking and are due to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic lung disease. However, it should be borne in mind that a minority of deaths, such as those related to suicide, may be increased in smokers but may not be wholly caused by smoking. Hence, although we are not able to exclude the relatively small number of deaths that are less likely to be causally related to smoking, the large majority of the observed excess mortality in smokers observed here would have been caused by smoking [3].
