Smoking decreases the lifetime of 10 years

Smokers die 10 years earlier on average than non-smokers, according to new findings published in the "British Medical Journal" (BMJ) published by the researcher who demonstrated for the first time, 50 years ago, that smoking causes lung cancer.

Professor Richard Doll of the Epidemiology Unit of the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, which has followed a cohort of 34,000 British doctors published his initial findings in the BMJ in 1954, paving the way for many anti-smoking campaigns in the world since then.

Today, 91 years epidemiologist, whose study is also signed by Richard Peto, an epidemiologist and also recognized specialist studies on the dangers of tobacco, published a 50-year follow-up of this cohort, showing that the damage tobacco are even more important today than they were before because they fully offset the impact of health improvements on these 50 years.

"Over the past decades, prevention and better treatment of disease divided by 2 the death rate of non-smokers," said Richard Doll in a statement. "But these improvements have been completely offset by the effects of tobacco for those who continue to smoke."

Indeed, for men born between 1900 and 1909, mortality between 35 and 69 years was 42% for smokers and 24% for non-smokers, nearly a doubling of risk. But for those born in the 1920s, while mortality between 35 and 69 years fell to 15% for non-smokers, it remained at 43% for smokers. And because of this, the difference between smokers and non-smokers increased to almost a factor of 3 in this age group.

The authors emphasize the generation of men born in the 1920s, who were conscripted into the army during the Second World War, and with the easy access to cheap cigarettes, were likely to become smokers at the age of 18. Among those who continued to smoke, 2/3 are dead.

The study also shows that there is interest in quitting. "On average, those who continue to smoke lose 10 years of life. But stop smoking at 60, 50, 40 or 30 saves, respectively, 3, 6, 9 or 10 years of life expectancy," said Professor Peto.

"Among those who continue to smoke, half will be killed by their practice" of smoking.

He adds that "thanks in part to previous results of this study, many people in the UK have stopped smoking and the country has the largest decrease in the world of tobacco-related deaths. But in many countries, deaths from smoking continue to increase. "

"In the UK, tobacco caused 6 million deaths over the last 50 years, but in the world it will cause almost 6 million deaths every year," he predicted.