A recent study has found that men lose 17 minutes of their lives with each cigarette they smoke, while women lose 22 minutes. This figure is more than earlier estimates, which said each cigarette took away 11 minutes of life. The research, conducted by University College London (UCL) for the Department for Health and Social Care also says that smokers should start the new year by quitting the harmful habit.

The research shows that smokers lose about the same number of healthy years as they do in terms of total years of life. This means smoking mainly reduces the healthier middle years of life, rather than just shortening the later years, which are often affected by chronic illness or disability.

It also says that the sooner smokers quit, the longer and healthier their lives will be. It suggests that if a smoker stops smoking on New Year's Day, they could regain a week of their life by February 20. By the end of the year, they could prevent losing up to 50 days of life.

The study emphasized that to fully benefit from improved health and life expectancy, smokers must quit entirely. Previous research has shown that no amount of smoking is safe, with the risk of heart disease and stroke being only about 50% lower for those who smoke one cigarette a day, compared to those who smoke 20 daily.

The World Health Organization (WHO) health that tobacco use is one of the largest public health threats globally, causing over 8 million deaths annually, including around 1.3 million non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke.
Around 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the impact of tobacco-related illness and death is most severe.