Two out of three smokers will die from habit: study

As many as two in three smokers will die from their habit if they continue to smoke, a new large-scale study of more than 200,000 people has warned.
The research is the first evidence from a broad cross-section of the population to show the smoking-related death toll is as high as two thirds, researchers said.
"We knew smoking was bad but we now have direct independent evidence that confirms the disturbing findings that have been emerging internationally," said lead author Professor Emily Banks, Scientific Director of the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study and a researcher at the Australian National University.

"Even with the very low rates of smoking that we have in Australia we found that smokers have around three-fold the risk of premature death of those who have never smoked. We also found smokers will die an estimated 10 years earlier than non-smokers," said Banks.
Until relatively recently it was thought that about half of smokers would die of a smoking-related illness, but newer studies in UK women, British doctors and Amercian Cancer Society volunteers have put the figure much higher, at up to 67 per cent.
"We have been able to show exactly the same result in a very large population-wide sample," Banks said.

The research is the result of a four-year analysis of health outcomes from more than 200,000 men and women participating in the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study - the largest longitudinal study of healthy ageing in the Southern Hemisphere.

"Our findings are an important reminder that the war on tobacco is not yet won, and tobacco control efforts must go on," Banks said.
The research also found that compared with non-smokers, smoking just 10 cigarettes a day doubles the risk of dying and smoking a pack a day increases the risk four- to five-fold.
The study was published in the journal BMC Medicine.