Just One Cigarette, Just One And The Risks It Brings

Sir Walter Raleigh what have you done? If you think smoking just one cigarette a day is harmless you should think again. A new study by the U.S. National Cancer Institute found that just a single cigarette each day can raise your odds for an early death. CBS News says the new research found that “There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke."

A lesson my mom should have learned before she spent a life with cigarettes and ultimately died from lung cancer.

The researchers tracked data on more than 290-thousand older Americans, aged 59 to 82. They looked specifically at the risks of "light" smoking --defined as 10 or fewer cigarettes a day. Compared with people who'd never smoked, people who smoked an average of less than one cigarette a day over their lifetime still had a 64 percent higher risk of dying early. And those who smoked one to 10 cigarettes a day had an 87 percent higher risk.

When it comes to specific causes of death, the risk of dying from lung cancer was nine times higher among those who smoked less than one cigarette a day over their lifetime, and 12 times higher among those who smoked one to 10 cigarettes a day. Light smokers were also six times more likely to die of respiratory diseases (like emphysema), and one-and-a-half times more likely to die of heart disease compared to never-smokers.

The research also showed it is never too late to quit --the risk of an early death was found to be lower for former light smokers than those who continued the habit. And the younger people were when they quit, the lower their risk of early death.