“Small smoker” does not mean “small risks”, quite the contrary

The term "light smoker" suggests that smoking a few cigarettes a day is not very dangerous to your health, which is not the case; in fact, compared to never smokers, "light smokers" die twice as often from respiratory diseases and eight times more often from lung cancer, according to one study.[1] presented at the Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society.

Dr. Pallavi Balte and Dr. Elizabeth Oelsner of Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York followed 18,730 people for about 17 years and compared the risks of dying from respiratory diseases and lung cancer according to smoking status: never smokers, "light smokers" (fewer than 10 cigarettes/day) and "heavy smokers" (more than 20 cigarettes/day), while taking into account the people's age, weight, sex, ethnicity and education level.

The researchers found that, compared to never smokers, “light smokers” were 2.5 times more likely to die from respiratory disease and 8.6 times more likely to die from lung cancer. Thus, while 0.6% of never smokers died from lung cancer, 4.7% of “light smokers” died from it, and 12.9% of “heavy smokers”. They specify that reducing the number of cigarettes smoked, with or without vaping, reduces the risks little and that only completely stopping smoking has clear beneficial effects on health.

This study confirms the classic observation that the risk of lung cancer increases much more with the number of years of smoking than with the number of cigarettes smoked per day.[2] and it complements recent data on cardiovascular risks which show that, compared with never-smokers, one cigarette smoked per day increases the risk of heart attack by 57 % in women and 48% in men, and the risk of stroke by 31% and 25% respectively.[3].

Professor Jørgen Vestbo, President of the European Respiratory Advocacy Council and Pulmonologist at the University of Manchester (UK) insists: " Although the proportion of people who smoke daily is decreasing in many countries, there is still a need for concern for those who identify as light or social smokers… it is clear that there is no safe level of smoking ".

Keywords: Health, respiratory diseases, lung cancer, smoking

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Oelsner, EC, Balte, PP, et Al.. (2020). Lung function decline in former smokers and low-intensity current smokers: a secondary data analysis of the NHLBI Pooled Cohorts Study. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 8(1), 34-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(19)30276-0 [2] Doll R, Peto R Cigarette smoking and bronchial carcinoma: dose and time relationships among regular smokers and lifelong non-smokers Epidemiol Community Health 1978 ; 32:303-13, DOI: 10.1136/jech.32.4.303 [3] Hackshaw HAS , Morris JK , Boniface S , Tang JL, Milenkovic D Low cigarette consumption and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: meta-analysis of 141 cohort studies in 55 study reports BMJ 2018;360:j5855 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.j5855 National Committee Against Smoking |