Is Tobacco the Number One Cause of Death Among Gays and Lesbians?

Rumors have been there for a while now that smoking rates among LGBT people were phenomenally higher than smoking rates among straight people.  There's now evidence to back this theory up.

A study coming out in the August 2009 issue of Tobacco Control shows that gay men and lesbians are radically more apt to light up a cigarette than heterosexual men and women.  The folks behind the study are researchers with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and they have one conclusive sentence to sum up their work: "Smoking is a significant health inequality for sexual minorities."

Here are some bullet points about their study:

• Upwards of 37 percent of lesbian women in the United States smoke cigarettes, which compares to only 18 percent of straight women;
• For gay men it's upwards of 33 percent, whereas approximately only 24 percent of straight men light up; and
• Researchers used more than 20 years of studies and research on the issue of LGBT smoking to inform their findings

Higher smoking rates for gay men and lesbians could be having a disastrous impact on public health for LGBT Americans.  Joseph Lee, one of the lead researchers of the report, had this to say:

Likely explanations include the success of tobacco industry’s targeted marketing to gays and lesbians, as well as time spent in smoky social venues and stress from discrimination.

These aren't new phenomena.  Groups like the National LGBT Tobacco Control Network have formed to try and put a dent in the rates of smoking among LGBT populations, and to point out concerning marketing techniques to get queer people - especially younger LGBT people - to smoke.  Groups like these are important to curbing high rates of smoking.  Because as well all know, prolonged smoking causes a torrent of diseases, and that torrent of diseases often results in death.

That's not a fact lost on the researchers.  Here's Lee again:

Tobacco is likely the number one cause of death among gays and lesbians.

The American Cancer Society estimates that at least 30,000 LGBT people die each year from smoking-related illnesses.  And that's a conservative estimate.

Much more information on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study can be found online at Tobacco Journal's Web site.  While the results can be a little upsetting to read, they're meant to help inform folks about the health consequences unique to LGBT folks from smoking.  And while studies like this are grim, they do help in spreading a culture of public health in LGBT circles.