A new study has revealed that each cigarette smoked reduces the smoker’s expected lifespan by approximately 20 minutes. After accounting for social, economic, and other factors, researchers at University College London estimated that each cigarette shortens a man’s life by 17 minutes and a woman’s life by 22 minutes.
The study, published in the journal Addiction, shows the profound impact of smoking on life expectancy. Sarah Jackson, the lead author and Principal Research Fellow at the University, explained that if someone smokes a pack of 20 cigarettes daily, they lose about seven hours of life for each pack.
Jackson emphasized that this lost time is the time smokers could have spent in good health with their loved ones. Smoking doesn’t just have negative effects at the end of life; it gradually undermines health throughout a person’s lifespan.
This research, initiated by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, included mortality data from the British Doctors Study for men and the Million Women Study for women. The studies found that, on average, smokers who smoked throughout their lives lost 10 years compared to non-smokers.
