Rabat – Researchers at University College London (ULC) have found that a single cigarette takes on average around 20 minutes off a person’s life, 17 for men and 22 for women.
This means that a pack of 20 cigarettes can take nearly seven hours off of a person’s life expectancy, explains the study, which was published today.
The researchers reported that if a smoker of 10 cigarettes per day were to quit on January 1, they would prevent the loss of a full day of life by January 8. And if they were to quit smoking for a whole year, they would avoid losing 50 days of life, they further elaborated.
“People generally know that smoking is harmful but tend to underestimate just how much,” says Dr Sarah Jackson, a principal research fellow at UCL’s alcohol and tobacco research group.
Jackson noted that smokers who do not quit lose, on average, around a decade of their life. “That’s 10 years of precious time, life moments, and milestones with loved ones,” she adds.
Speaking to the Guardian, Jackson said that many people say they do not mind losing a few years of life, especially that old age is marked by chronic illness or disability. But she noted that “smoking doesn’t cut short the unhealthy period at the end of life.”
The research further explained that smoking “primarily eats into the relatively healthy years in midlife, bringing forward the onset of ill-health.”
“This means a 60-year-old smoker will typically have the health profile of a 70-year-old non-smoker,” she said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills up to 50% of its users who do not quit. It added that smoking claims the lives of over eight million people each year, including around 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to smoke.
