This table has been adapted from the following source: Peto R, Lopez AD, Boreham J, Thun M, Heath C. Mortality from Smoking in Developed Countries 1950-2000. Oxford, Oxford Medical Publications, 1994

Hazards for the individual cigarette user

BIG RISK, especially among those who start smoking cigarettes regularly in their TEENAGE years: if they keep smoking steadily then about HALF will eventually be killed by tobacco (approximately one-quarter in old age plus one-quarter in middle age)

• Those killed by tobacco in MIDDLE age (35-69 years) lose an average of 20-25 YEARS of non-smoker life expectancy

• Throughout the European Union, tobacco is much the greatest single cause of death. In non-smokers, cancer mortality is decreasing slowly and total mortality is decreasing rapidly

• Most of those killed by tobacco were not particular "heavy" smokers

STOPPING SMOKING WORKS: Even in middle age, stopping before having cancer or some other serious disease avoids most of the later excess risk from tobacco, and the benefits of stopping at earlier ages are even greater