Anti's are rather fond of stating that smoking causes 440,000 deaths in the USA per year.

Smoking or exposure to SHS has not been,is not, and probably will never be listed as the immediate cause of death on any death certificate.

The 5 most populous states are Calif., New York, Fla., Penn., and Illinois. These states account for 1/3 of the total population of the USA and also account for(788,087) about 1/3 of the deaths.

Statistics from their Depts of Public Health show that not 1 of those 788,087 deaths was caused by smoking or exposure to SHS.

Seems to me that you have to have a body in order to prove a death.

http://www.dhs.ca.gov/hisp/chs/ohir/tables/datafiles/vsofca/0513.pdf

TABLE 5-13. NINETEEN MAJOR CAUSES OF DEATH CALIFORNIA, 2003
TOTAL ALL CAUSES 239,325

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/vital_statistics/2004/table41a.htm
Table 41a: Deaths by Selected Causes of Death,
Vital Statistics of New York State 2004
All Causes Total 151,455




http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/health/lib/health/Vit...01-2005/d99myr10.pdf

TOTAL

2004 126,602




http://www.flpublichealth.com/VSBOOK/pdf/2004/Deaths.pdf

TOTAL
2004 168,364



http://www.idph.state.il.us/health/bdmd/leadingdeaths04.htm

Leading Causes of Death, Illinois, 2004
Deaths to Illinois residents – total


Total

All causes 102,341

The antis have never bothered much with the details...we're supposed to take their word for it no matter what. They could say that every single of the 3-4 million deaths in the US every year is caused by tobacco or SHS exposure and the news media would dutifully report it as they always do. They have no shame and no accountability.