Two in three of regular smokers end up dying due to habit

A new study has demonstrated that smoking kills two out of three people if they continue their habit.

The study conducted at Sax Institute approached more than 200,000 Australian people and showed that that up to 66 percent of smokers will die from their habit.

Lead author Professor Emily Banks, Scientific Director of the Sax Institute', said that they knew smoking was bad but they now have direct independent evidence that confirmed the disturbing findings that have been emerging internationally.

Banks said that even with the very low rates of smoking that they have in Australia they found that smokers have around three-fold the risk of premature death of those who have never smoked and they also found that smokers will die an estimated 10 years earlier than non-smokers.

The NSW Heart Foundation's CEO, Kerry Doyle, said that higher tobacco prices have been shown to be the most effective intervention available to governments to reduce demand for tobacco and with smoking being a major cause of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease the more deterrents people have between them and smoking, the better.

The study is published in the international journal BMC Medicine.