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No "safe" smoking, even light: study
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http://www.100md.com 2005-9-22
xinhuanet |
People who smoke one to four cigarettes a day call themselves social smokers.
BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Smokers who believe a few cigarettes a day don't do any harm will need to think again.
Researchers at Norwegian national health institutions in Oslo tracked the health and death rates of almost 43,000 men and women from the mid-1970s to 2002.
The study, which was published in journal Tobacco Control, found that compared with people who had never smoked, those who smoked between one and five cigarettes a day were almost three times as likely to die of coronary artery disease.
While there was little difference in the general risk of dying from any type of cancer, this was not the case for lung cancer specifically.
Men who were light smokers were almost three times as likely to be killed by lung cancer, while in women the risk rose to five times higher.
Maureen Moore, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health Scotland, said there is no such thing as a "safe cigarette" as people quickly become addicted.
"I always worry about people calling themselves social smokers. Once you start smoking you are on a downward spiral," she said, "Policymakers and health educators should emphasise more strongly that light smokers also endanger their health."
However, Rod Bullough, of the campaign group Freedom to Choose, said: "People are fed up of being told what to do. Adults make their own decisions and get on with their own lives whether you smoke, drink or have a hamburger." Enditem
(Agencies)
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