No more cigarettes means 10 more years for women

A massive new study about smoking from the University of Oxford in the U.K. has reported breathtaking results. Doctors and researchers found the nasty effects associated with cigarettes years ago, but this study focused on the harms of smoking as well as the benefits of quitting. Putting aside the knowledge society has about cigarettes already, the findings of this study could serve as yet another motivation for smokers to quit.

One of the largest studies ever done on the subject, Sir Richard Peto - a professor at the University of Oxford - and his colleagues recruited 1.3 million women between 1996 and 2001, all of whom were born around the 1940s and had been smoking regularly throughout their lives. The participants were all between the ages of 50 and 65, and they each filled out questionnaires about their lifestyles, medical status, and sociodemographic factors. The researchers did follow-ups and resurveyed the participants three and eight years later.

At the beginning of the study, 20 percent of the women were smokers, while 28 percent had stop smoking and 52 percent never smoked. 66,000 of the participants had passed away by 2011. The study showed that the smokers who continued three years into the study were three times more likely to pass away in comparison to non-smokers and women that had quit before middle age. According to the researchers, this means that two-thirds of the deaths of female smokers in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are related to smoking.

The researchers also noted that while the death risk in smokers is elevated by the amount smoked, light smokers (one to nine cigarettes per day) were still twice as likely to pass away as nonsmokers, reports Natural News.

Smokers are failing to quit within first 24 hours

Almost one in five smokers who have tried to kick the habit failed within 24 hours and more than half lasted less than a week, according to a poll of 6,200 current or former smokers.

The average smoker tried to quit four times, and one in 10 unsuccessfully tried 10 times.

But despite the repeated failures, 45% of smokers think about giving up smoking every day.

Three in five (60%) plan to stub out their last cigarette in January, according to the survey on behalf of Pfizer's Don't Go Cold Turkey campaign.

The campaign aims to encourage smokers to talk to healthcare workers about how they plan to quit.

London-based GP Dr Sarah Jarvis said: "As a GP, my main aim is to get people to look at leading healthier lifestyles and one of the most important of these is stopping smoking, according to The Independent.

"I'm aware that the vast majority of people who do smoke are either desperate to quit or have tried and failed in the past.

"I want those who are motivated to quit to consider that there is support available and that even a brief conversation with their healthcare professional or local stop smoking service can increase their chances of success by up to four times, compared to going cold turkey."

Malaysia gov't faces tobacco wrath over ban delay

A tobacco giant that exhausted its inventory of small cigarette packets in anticipation of a ban threatened Thursday to take legal action against the Malaysian government for reportedly deciding to delay the prohibition.

The Malaysian affiliate of Philip Morris International voiced disappointment with what it called a "precipitous" decision that would be "a devastating blow not only to our business but to foreign investor confidence in Malaysia."

Tobacco companies in the Southeast Asian country have been phasing out parts of their inventory and manufacturing equipment in recent months ahead of a government ban on cigarette packets containing fewer than 20 cigarettes that was supposed to take effect June 1.

However, the financial newspaper The Edge reported Thursday that the government had decided to postpone the ban. The Malaysian Insider news website later quoted Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai as saying that authorities feared the ban would spark a surge in demand for illegally produced cigarettes.

Health Ministry officials said they could not immediately comment on the reports, and that Liow was traveling late Thursday and could not be contacted.

"In the absence of clarity surrounding this decision, (we) will have no choice but to evaluate all possible avenues, including legal recourse, to recover any losses the company may suffer," Richard Morgan, the managing director of Philip Morris in Malaysia, said in a statement.

"How can any corporation plan for its future and maintain its viability in an environment of such legal uncertainty, where decisions that are supposedly set in concrete can be overturned so rapidly and without any consultation?" the statement added.

The government had been planning the ban for years as part of efforts to curb smoking among young Malaysians who consider smaller cigarette packs more affordable.

The Malaysian Insider quoted Liow as saying the government would make a final decision in "a few months" on when the ban might be enforced.

There’s no such thing as a good cigarette!

Forget the idea that smoking a cigarette from time to time is ok. Even occasional smokers are putting themselves at risk, particularly of cardiovascular problems.

Smoking can in fact very rapidly affect the physiology of the artery walls and contribute to the early onset of atherosclerosis, leading to the formation of atheromatous plaques and the risk of myocardial infarction.

An American study published in the French journal Tabac Actualités has recently shown this. Two groups were formed and studied, each consisting of 6 men and 3 women, aged between 20 and 26, and all in good health. The first comprised nine members who had never smoked and acted as a control group. The second group of 9 were all occasional smokers, ie they had been smoking less than one packet of cigarettes per week for at least a year.

The researchers found that the arteries of those who smoked showed signs of obstruction, and this was after smoking only two cigarettes per day. These results suggest that the atherosclerotic process is encouraged by even episodic intoxication, explains Dr Claire Vesin of the AHT cardiovascular prevention and therapy unit of the l’Hôtel Dieu de Paris hospital. Even one or two cigarettes consumed in particular circumstances, at a party for example, can have a real impact on health. And we need to get this new message out there!