The risk of cancer increases with the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Even 'light' smokers of 1-5 cigarettes per day have an almost 10-times increased risk of lung cancer. That's according to new research conducted by The Daffodil Centre.
Senior Research Fellow, Dr Marianne Weber lead this large scale project which highlights the dangers of smoking.
"I mean Australia has a lot of success in tobacco control over the years, to the point where Australia has now one of the lowest rates of smoking prevalence in the world - around 11 per cent - but this is not true to subgroups of the population, so some of our older Australians, so people with mental health problems and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We know that their smoking rates are all higher than the 11 per cent of the whole population. So I think we have still got some more work to do which demonstrates the importance of studies like this."
Globally, new research shows there were almost eight million deaths associated with smoking in 2019, and 89 per cent of new smokers were addicted by the age of 25. The number of smokers worldwide increased to 1.1 billion in 2019, with tobacco smoking causing 7.7 million deaths. According to the WHO, around 780 million people say they want to quit, but only 30 per cent of them have access to the tools needed to do so.
For tips on how to quit, call Quitline on 13 QUIT which is 13 78 48. Or the I Can Quit website, Cancer Council website, the Daffodil Centre, Help To Quit website.
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