Smokers likely to die 10 years earlier: Aussie research

Current smokers are estimated to die an average of 10 years earlier than non-smokers; however, mortality decreases as soon as smokers quit, an Australian research shows.

The results from a four-year study of 200,000 Australians aged 45 and over published in BMC Medicine find that current smokers are on average three times more likely to die than people who have never smoked, with that increasing to four times more likely for pack-a-day smokers.

"This is even more reason why we should be trying to diminish the number of smokers," Rob Moodie, former CEO of VicHealth and current professor of Public Health at Melbourne University said Tuesday in the wake of the research that forecast death from smoking-related diseases for two-thirds of Australia's 2.7 million smokers if they continue to smoke.

"Obviously there are not only huge problems in Australia but in China and Indonesia where you've got these huge train wrecks on their way," he added.

According to the Australian research, current smokers, if they quit smoking before 45, will show no significant differences to never-smokers.

Moodie said governments could tackle the problem by taking tough restrictions seen in some Western countries.

"We know what works. The framework of tobacco control tells us what works. It's tax, it's pricing, it's banning of sponsorship and advertising, it's smoke-free laws," he said.

"We know how to do it. The question is whether countries will pull tobacco companies into line."