Tobacco.org

News for Smokers: Cutting Back Isn't Good Enough 

New research debunks the belief that cutting down on cigarette smoking can buy you time. The study, published in the current issue of Tobacco Control, found that heavy smokers who halved their daily cigarette intake had the same overall mortality rates as people who continued to smoke 15 or more cigarettes per day. Lead researcher Kjell Bjartveit, an epidemiologist for Norway's National Health Screening Service, says that believing you can lower your risk of death and disease by reducing intake is "nonsense," and health educators and doctors who promote the idea need to reassess the tactic. "The message is: If you want to do something with your cigarette smoking, quit entirely."

More than 51,000 adults ages 20 to 49 were screened initially in Norway during the mid-1970s, with either one, two or three follow-up screenings over the next three to 13 years.

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