Even very occasional smokers are much more likely to die young than those who have completely quit.
- Daily smokers have a 2.32 times greater risk of death than people who have never smoked, and occasional smokers have a 1.82 times greater risk of death.
- Hence the recommendation of scientists: “all smokers should quit smoking, regardless of how often they smoke”.
Smoking even a few cigarettes a month remains very dangerous for your health, underlines a new study of JAMA. Unlike junk food or alcohol, whose harmful effects decrease in proportion to use, tobacco increases the risk of dying young, even when consumed in small quantities. Hence the recommendation of the scientists: “all smokers should quit, no matter how often they smoke”.
The benefits of quitting smoking are far greater
The study involved 505,500 American adults. Daily smokers had a 2.32 times greater risk of death than people who had never smoked, and occasional smokers had a 1.82 times greater risk of death. “Significant associations with mortality were observed for 6 to 10 cigarettes per month and increased with more intensive consumption”, note the authors of the research. “Risks decrease when smokers switch from daily to occasional smoking, but the benefits of quitting smoking are far greater,” they continue.
In the United States, more and more smokers only use tobacco occasionally. New habits that are still little studied, hence the desire of scientists “to assess the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality among occasional and daily smokers, based on the number of cigarettes per month, a few years after smoking reduction”.
2020 was a year of getting back to bad habits
According to the Public Health France barometer, 74% of occasional or daily smokers declare that they consume classic cigarettes (51.6% exclusively), 35.7% roll-your-own tobacco (16.2% exclusively), 6.6% cigarillos (1.3% exclusively), 6.1% of cigars (0.8% exclusively), 1.8% smoke a pipe (0.2% exclusively) and 9.4% turn to shisha, even only occasionally (4.1% exclusively).
The year 2020 was that of the resumption of bad habits in terms of cigarette consumption, the fault mainly of confinement. About a quarter of smokers (27%) say they have increased their tobacco consumption. On average, the increase was five cigarettes per day among daily smokers.
Each year, tobacco kills approximately 75,000 people in France, due to various pathologies caused by this industry (cancers, heart attacks, etc.).
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