lung cancer deaths are reported declining among men in most EU countries but rising among women.
   
Tobacco remains Europe’s single biggest cause of preventable death, researchers reported in the British Medical Journal. Tobacco-related diseases cause 650,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the European Union, the report said.

The research team calculated lung cancer deaths in the 15 original EU member states and new members from Central and Eastern Europe.

They found that most EU countries are now experiencing falling death rates from lung cancer in men. Only four countries - Portugal, Greece, Spain and France - show no evidence of a decline across the 35-54 age range.
   
In contrast, mortality from lung cancer in women is still rising in most EU countries, except for the United Kingdom and, to some extent, Ireland and Denmark. The greatest increases were in France, Spain and Hungary.