SMOKING just one cigarette a day almost triples the risk of heart disease and lung cancer, warn researchers.
Women are at more risk than men, even when they smoke less than a pack a week.
A study demolishes the myth that ‘light’ smokers those on between one and four cigarettes a day and those who have cut down will significantly reduce their risk of serious health problems.
Doctors say the findings show every cigarette can cause damage to smokers as well as those around them.
Although the risk is highest for those who smoke the most, ‘social smoking’ carries a far greater danger than was previously assumed, according to the study.
Researchers in Norway tracked the health and death rates among almost 43,000 men and women from the mid-1970s until 2002.
Those taking part were aged 35 to 49 at the start, when they were screened for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
The data showed light smoking significantly endangers health even after other risk factors are taken into account.
Those on between one and five cigarettes a day were almost three times more likely to die from coronary artery disease than those who had never smoked.
Male light smokers were almost three times more likely to be killed by lung cancer.
Women were almost five times as likely to die of the disease as their non-smoking peers.
The researchers also found that light smokers had significantly higher death rates from all causes up by 1.5 times compared to those who had never smoked.
Death rates were also linked to the number of cigarettes smoked each day, says the study published today in the scientific journal Tobacco Control.
The research was carried out by Dr Aage Tverdal, from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and Dr Kjell Bjartveit, from the National Health Screening Service in Oslo.
They concluded: ‘In men and women smoking one to four cigarettes per day there was a distinct increase in risk of death from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes.
‘For ischaemic heart disease, the steepest increase was, in both sexes, between zero and one to four cigarettes per day.
‘Above this level, the slope was less pronounced.’ Those smoking more than a pack a day were four times more likely to suffer heart disease. But their risk of lung cancer increased hugely up to 30- fold.
The researchers said it had often been assumed that a few cigarettes a day were not harmful. But the health message was clear, they insisted.
‘The results from this and other studies imply that smoking- control policymakers and health educators should emphasise more strongly that light smokers are also endangering their health,’ they said.
‘Is there a threshold for daily cigarette consumption that must be exceeded before serious health consequences occur?
‘In most studies, the lowest consumption group was set at one to nine or one to 15 cigarettes per day.
‘One may argue that smokers in these groups clustered close to the upper limit and a threshold might be found on a lower level.
‘Only a few studies have reported on the health consequences of smoking fewer than five cigarettes per day.’ June Davison, of the British Heart Foundation, said last night: ‘Smoking kills over 30,000 people each year in the UK from heart and circulatory disease.
‘This study only adds fuel to the evidence that every cigarette counts.
‘Cigarette smoke can affect the lining of the arteries, leading to a build-up of a fatty plaque called atheroma.
‘This can cause potentially fatal conditions such as a heart attack or a stroke.
‘It is important to remember that every cigarette makes a difference.
‘Even as little as one a day can endanger the health of smokers and those around them.’ [email protected]
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