A recent UK study that had more than one million women indicated that women who smoke into their middle age have death rates three times higher compared to non smokers and risk dying a decade earlier. Data from the recent study also contained positive news. The data showed that if a woman stopped smoking prior to 40, it reduced the risk of her dying from a tobacco related death by 90% and if she quit prior to reaching 35, that risk was reduced by over 97%.
Just one day after the study was published the UK celebrated the 100th anniversary of Sir Richard Doll’s birth. Doll was the first to establish there was a link between developing lung cancer and smoking. This new study shows conclusively for the first time that the deadly effects of smoking are the same for females as they are for males.
Historically men have smoked earlier than women and smoking did not become a regular habit for women until women who were born in the 1940s started smoking. Thus, the impact of smoking on shortening the lives of women has not been measured completely until just recently.
The ages of all the women involved were between 50 and 65. Due to the study’s enormous size, it makes it unique and a vast amount of important data was extracted from it. That data led to many things, including important findings on risk factors involving breast cancer in women.
