Up to two-thirds of smokers will die from their smoking, on average ten years early

[AussieNeil]

For those that have missed the latest news on how the health impact of smoking has now been assessed as being far greater than previously determined, here's another study, this time from Australia, reinforcing the message that smoking is most unwise if you value your health. The article below from Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at University of Sydney, Australia, includes a calculation that a person who started smoking at 15 and smoked an average of 15 cigarettes a day and died at 72, for each cigarette smoked, would shave about 2.8 times the time taken for each smoke off the end of their life. No wonder smoking is sometimes termed the "coffin habit".

"When Sir Richard Doll’s 40 year follow-up of his historic British doctors study was published in 1994, the take-home message was “half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit”.

We can now say with confidence that up to two-thirds of smokers will die from their smoking, on average ten years early.":

theconversation.com/smoking...

Not strictly CLL related I know, but if you are still a smoker and want your body to be in good shape for you to live well with CLL, reduce the impact of fatigue and the risk of secondary cancers, then maybe this news will be the incentive to get serious about quitting.

Neil

[pitbull]

"death rates in former smokers who had quit before turning 45 were not different from those in the study who had never smoked (the very welcome news)."

Well as I gave up when I was 30 I see that as a positive step in my life. However, I am sure if I was to try one again it wouldn't be long before old habits set in!! My father always said that you have got it cracked when you don't like the smell anymore and he was right, for years after I did not mind passive smoking in bars (when it was allowed) but now I do find the smell irritating especially when you have to walk past the hoards of people smoking at the entrance to a building!!

To all the smokers, do yourself a favour and pack it in for your healths sake

To all the reformed smokers, well done and keep it up, the benefits are worth it.

Kirk

[AussieNeil Administrator in reply to pitbull]

Well done Kirk and well said. Nicotine is extremely addictive as witnessed by a common saying among smokers "Do I find it too hard to quit? No, I've done it plenty of times!!"

Yes that observation about death rates being no different if smokers quit before turning 45 was very encouraging, provided that as one commenter observed, you don't take it as an invitation to smoke until age 45 (and then likely find you can't quit...).

Neil

[AussieNeil Administrator]

Australia's successful effort to introduce plain paper packaging of cigarettes, now being followed by the UK, was hard fought against by the tobacco industry. As

Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at University of Sydney sad "There is near-universal agreement that Australia’s implementation of tobacco plain packaging in December 2012 has seen the most virulent opposition ever experienced from the global tobacco industry." So how did the doom and gloom statements made by the tobacco industry translate into reality?

theconversation.com/cluster...

Neil