People now know that smoking is dangerous our health and is one of the leading causes of cancer, heart disease, and premature death. However, some people believe that smoking less can have less harm than smoking more cigarettes.
A study, which investigated the harm in smoking as little as one cigarette a day, has now released their findings. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) analyzed over 290,000 adults in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.
The research was led by Maki Inoue-Choi, Ph.D., Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics from the NCI. The study classified low-intensity smoking as 10 or fewer cigarettes per day. The study looked at participants between 59 and 82 years old.
The participants were first asked to report on their lifetime smoking patterns. From the participants, 159 reported smoking less than one cigarette per day throughout their smoking years. However, almost 1,500 said they smoked between one and 10 cigarettes every day.
The results revealed that as little as one cigarette a day increases the death risk by 64 % and those who smoked between 1-10 cigarettes a day had an 87% higher risk of dying earlier than never smokers. The good news is that the risk of premature deaths decreased proportionally with the age when these smokers quit.
The results also showed that those who smoked one cigarette per day were also 9 times more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers. While those who smoked 1-10 cigarettes a day, were 12 times more likely to die from lung cancer than never smokers.