New estimates
Each cigarette costs a smoker 20 minutes of life
Updated on January 1, 2025Reading time: 2 min.
Anyone who has set themselves the goal of quitting smoking for the New Year could gain more life than previously thought.
British scientists estimate that smokers shorten their lives by an average of 20 minutes with each cigarette. For men it is 17 minutes and for women 22. This emerges from a statement from the British government, which cites the results of three researchers from University College London (UCL).
“If a smoker quits on New Year’s Day, he or she can save a whole week of his life by February 20th,” says the Ministry of Health in London, which commissioned the study. By the end of the year, the number of days of life saved will be 50.
The information is based on a new evaluation of two long-term studies from Great Britain. The research team took into account more recent data, a longer observation period and more factors than an earlier estimate from 2000. At that time, the life time lost due to a cigarette was estimated at 11 minutes. But that was based on the assumption that smokers who don’t quit lose an average of 6.5 years of their life expectancy. Now the assumption is ten years for men and eleven years for women.
“It is British data, but one can assume that it also applies to Germany and other Western countries,” said the head of the cancer prevention department at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.
The notice is part of a UK government campaign to encourage people to stop. One of the study authors stated that, among other things, he worked for a company that developed tobacco substitute products. The work of Sarah Jackson’s team is published in the journal “Addiction”.
Harm Wienbergen from the Bremen Institute for Cardiovascular Research believes the estimate is plausible, but pointed out that there are large individual differences in how harmful a cigarette is. “An important point is certainly the age at which you start smoking.” Germany has a great need to strengthen public measures against smoking. “In my view, the efforts in England can be a role model,” said Wienbergen.
The government in London is planning to gradually ban the purchase of tobacco completely. A corresponding law, which is intended to gradually increase the minimum age, is currently in the legislative process in the lower house. It stipulates that people born after January 1, 2009 will never be able to legally purchase tobacco products.
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the UK, accounting for 80,000 deaths a year and accounting for a quarter of all cancers, according to government figures.