Smoking explains why Americans don't live longer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Smoking and, to a smaller degree, obesity explain why Americans do not live as long as the French or Japanese, U.S. experts reported on Tuesday.

Even though just 20 percent of Americans smoke now, more than 40 percent of U.S. adults smoked in 1960 and the population is still paying the price, the report from the National Research Council found.

"Other factors, such as obesity, diet, exercise, and economic inequality, also have likely played a role in the current gap and divergence between the United States and other countries," the panel of experts appointed by the council wrote.

Many experts have tried to explain why the United States, which spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country and which haschild born today likely to live to be nearly 83 on average, according to the United Nations. The United States ranks 36th, with a life expectancy of 78.3 -- below most of Europe, South Korea, Chile and right below Cuba.

"Smoking also has caused significant reductions in life expectancy in the Netherlands and Denmark, which ... are two other countries with relatively poor life expectancy trends," the report adds.

BETTER TIMES COMING

But because smoking rates are improving in the United States, lifespans should improve, the report predicts.

Other experts have found just the opposite -- that smoking and obesity do not fully explain the U.S. lag. Last October, a team at Columbia University in New York determined that the lack of a coherent healthcare system in the United States was to