Hi everyone! Do we still have any smokers at Feelies? I thought this article was interesting in the specific way harm from tobacco use can now me measured:
Smokers lose at least five years
The Times
April 21, 2005
LONDON: The risks of smoking are far greater than most people recognise, new statistics indicate.
Being a smoker at the age of 30 cuts a man's life expectancy by five years and a woman's by more than six, according to research from the Institute of Actuaries.
At any age up to 80, the chances of dying in the next year are almost doubled by being a smoker, the research indicates.
A man aged 60 who is a smoker has a risk of dying in the next year of 106 in 10,000, but if he is a non-smoker the risk is only 48 in 10,000.
For a woman smoker the same age, the risk is 85 per 100,000, while for a non-smoker it is 35 per 100,000.
This is the first time the actuaries have included the smoking risk in their life tables.
Life insurance companies use the tables to calculate how long people may be expected to live and hence set premiums.
Women live longer than men, but the tables show that being a smoker has a more potent influence on life expectancy than being male or female. A man aged 30 today can expect on average to live to be a shade over 81, a woman to reach almost 84.
Both sexes can add a year at least to that average if they are non-smokers. But a woman who smokes will lose five years and four months of life, two years more than the gain she gets by being female.
Brian Ridsdale, chairman of the Continuous Mortality Investigation undertaken by the actuarial profession, said: "These important new statistics provide further evidence, if it is needed, that smoking is not only bad for the quality of our lives, but their quantity, too."
The tables have never before included smoking risks because, although they have been published regularly since 1925, it is only 12 years since the question on smoking was included. Since then data have been collected on 2.5million people. Of those, 20,000 have died, sufficient to produce robust estimates.
The tables were presented yesterday by Angus Macdonald, professor of Actuarial Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University in Glasgow, at a conference in London.
Jean King, of Cancer Research UK, said: "The good news is that quitting works. Quitting at age 50 halves the risk of dying of a tobacco-related disease and quitting at 30 avoids almost all of it."
theaustralian.news.com.au |
