Smoking: it still kills more than previously thought

Two out of three smokers will die of a disease caused by smoking. A terrifying and much higher number than what scientists predicted so far.

Smoking kills: it is written in capital letters on cigarette packets. But what is not clear is that tobacco kills far more than scientists imagined until now. Because according to a new Australian study, two out of three smokers will die of a smoking-related illness.

The study, published in the medical journal BMC Medicine, analyzed data from 200,000 people aged 45 and older, followed for four years. It shows that two thirds (67%) of long-term smokers (that is to say having smoked for at least 35 years) died of a smoking-related illness. These range from 14 types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases (heart attack, stroke or major vascular disorder).

Previous studies suggested that two smokers die of tobacco and that 100 people die from passive smoking. But the new Australian figures show that the risk is even more important and that risk increases with the intensity of smoking. It is doubled from 10 cigarettes a day and quadrupled from a pack a day.

"We also found that smokers die about 10 years earlier than nonsmokers," said Professor Emily Banks, lead author of the study.

Currently estimated at 16 million the number of smokers in France. And every day, 200 people die prematurely of tobacco.