Women who continue to smoke or quit smoking at around the age of 50 are still at a higher risk of early death.
"Smokers lose at least 10 years of lifespan. Although the hazards of smoking until age 40 years and then stopping are substantial, the hazards of continuing are 10 times greater," the authors of the Million Women Study wrote.
According to a new study published in The Lancet, one pack of cigarettes a day is likely to reduce a life span by 11 years and triple the risk of premature death.
"Even cessation at about 50 years of age avoids at least two-thirds of the continuing smoker's excess mortality in later middle age," the researchers wrote online in The Lancet.
A study included 1.3 million women who quit smoking by the age of 30 reduced 97 percent risk of premature death.
"If women smoke like men, they die like men - but, whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra 10 years of life," Professor Sir Richard Peto, one of the co-authors at Oxford University said. "Both in the UK and in the USA, women born around 1940 were the first generation in which many smoked substantial numbers of cigarettes throughout adult life. Hence, only in the 21st century could we observe directly the full effects of prolonged smoking, and of prolonged cessation, on premature mortality among women."
Sandra Adams, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio said the risk is not only associated with cigarette smoking, in fact many other tobacco products will have an impact on health. Products commonly used as an alternate to either quit smoking or to reduce the threats to life by smoking cigarettes are misunderstood. Hookah (Sheesha), smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes which has nicotine vapor and other chemicals pose equal risks to life.
