BRUSSELS- One in seven deaths in Europe are caused by smoking, with the Czech Republic exhibiting higher smoking-related deaths than average, a study by the European Commission released today states.

Czech men between the ages of 35 and 54 tend to die of lung cancer at higher rates than the EU average, the report found, coming in fourth from last among the 25 EU member states and Iceland and Norway. Lung-cancer deaths for men were only exceeded by France, Poland, and Hungary in increasing order. Czech women likewise have higher lung-cancer rates than the European average, at eleven from the bottom. Nonetheless, the Czech Republic, like most other European countries, has decreasing lung-cancer rates, with a decrease of 3.4 percent for men and 0.1 percent for women between 1991 and 2000. In addition, the EC report found, smoking in the Czech Republic has decreased in past decades, with 17 percent fewer men and 10 percent fewer women smoking than in 1985. However, according to the report, cigarettes remain relatively cheap, with one pack costing around 1.32 euros, and the purchasing power of Czechs has increased relative to this. In 2001, the average Czech wage-earner needed between 32 to 40 minutes of work to pay for a single pack, the study found.

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