A team of behavioral scientists at University College London has found that for long-term smokers, just one cigarette reduces lifespan by approximately 20 minutes. They have published an editorial in the journal Addiction outlining their study that examined the lifespans of smokers in the U.K.
There is an overwhelming amount of research showing that smoking cigarettes is a serious health hazard—it has been described as the leading cause of preventable disease in the United States. Still, more than 6.5 million people living in the U.K. are categorized as current smokers. In this new study, the team at UCL has taken another approach to convincing people to quit—pointing out the harm that just one cigarette inflicts.
The researchers pulled statistics from the British Doctors Study to find mortality data for men living in the U.K. and the Million Women Study for women. They calculated the impact of smoking on longevity down to the level of a single cigarette for both genders. They found that among long-term smokers, a single cigarette reduces life expectancy for men by 17 minutes, and by 22 minutes for women.
They also found that data from both sources backed up previous findings that damage from smoking cigarettes is cumulative and that the benefits achieved by quitting smoking depend on several factors, including current health, how long a person has lived and how many cigarettes they smoke per day.
The research team further noted that general benefits from quitting smoking can be broken down by day, week, month or even years. Not smoking for a week, for example, can prevent a one-day reduction in longevity; doing so for a couple of months could prevent a reduction in longevity of a full week.
They also note that quitting smoking at a relatively younger age can reap more benefits than quitting at an older age; quitting at age 40, for example, has been shown to reduce the risk of dying from ailments associated with smoking by up to 90%.
More information:
Sarah E. Jackson et al, The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life?, Addiction (2024). DOI: 10.1111/add.16757
© 2025 Science X Network
Citation:
Smoking just one cigarette can reduce lifespan by about 20 minutes (2025, January 2)
retrieved 2 January 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-cigarette-lifespan-minutes.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
