100 million years will be lost if smokers don’t quit
ONE HUNDRED million years of life will be lost in the UK unless people who currently smoke quit, experts are warning.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said more than a fifth of the population still smokes and, with smokers losing an average of ten years of life each, a hundred million years of life will be lost.
Half of people who smoke are known to die from their habit.
The RCP published its first report on smoking and health in 1962 and updated its findings for a one-day conference yesterday. Since 1962, more than six million people have died as a result of smoking.
Sir Richard Thompson, RCP president, said: “This important conference marks another milestone in the RCP’s efforts to reduce unnecessary deaths and disease from smoking. I hope that in another 50 years smoking will have passed into history.”