Most in-depth study ever reveals how few cigarettes can cause health troubles

Are you a light or social smoker who thinks ‘just a few’ won’t hurt? The most in-depth study ever conducted shows you’re kidding yourself that it’s not doing damage, revealing just how few cigarettes it takes to double your risk of heart attack and stroke.

A new study reveals just how few cigarettes it takes to double your risk of heart attack and stroke.

As few as five cigarettes a day doubles the risk of smokers dying from a heart attack and stroke, a world-first Australian study of 190,000 people has found.

For the first time, Australian National University researchers established smokers have triple the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and double the risk of a heart attack, a stroke or heart failure compared to nonsmokers.

Smokers are five times more likely to develop peripheral cardiovascular diseases such as gangrene, according to the most in-depth study in the world tracking both smokers and nonsmokers over seven years.

In total, about 6000 Australians die each year from preventable smoking-related cardiovascular illnesses — 17 a day.

However, if Australia’s 2.7 million smokers quit by the age of 45, they could reduce their cardiovascular risks by 90 per cent.

“It is a wake-up call for the Australian community,” lead researcher Emily Banks from the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, said.

There is “nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Smoking causes terrible harm across the board,” Professor Banks said.

“If a smoker has a heart attack or a stroke, it is more likely than not that it was caused by smoking.”

About 6000 Australians die each year from preventable smoking-related cardiovascular illnesses.

The internationally-acclaimed findings will be used to inform industry and government policy makers including Quit and the Heart Foundation.

The ANU researchers investigated “the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, heart muscle disease, rhythm problems, and gangrene in Australians from every walk of life: men, women, city, country, rich, poor,” Professor Banks said.

“Our study shows that a population almost twice the size of Port Douglas is being wiped out in Australia each year — with smoking causing more than 6400 cardiovascular deaths, including from heart attack and stroke,” she said.

The study found smoking also causes 11,400 coronary heart hospitalisations a year — 31 per day.

Heart Foundation chief executive John Kelly said the new evidence was disturbing.

“It demonstrates that our battle to eliminate the devastation tobacco brings to people’s lives is far from over,” he said.

“We urge the government to maintain tobacco control as a high priority and look forward to seeing it feature strongly in the new Prevention Strategy recently announced by the Minister for Health.”

Heart Foundation chief executive John Kelly.

Dr Sarah White, director of Quit Victoria, said the study “reinforces how important it is to prioritise quitting”.

“Quitting at any age provides a whole host of health and other benefits and quitting by age 45 avoids about 90 per cent of the cardiovascular risks of smoking,” she said.

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“And if you are a light or social smoker who thinks “just a few” won’t hurt, this study really shows you’re kidding yourself that it’s not doing damage.

“No matter how much you smoke or how long you have smoked, the best time to stop is right now. Call the Quitline, or talk to your GP or other health professional for advice.”

The research was published in the international journal BMC Medicine and was undertaken in partnership with the Heart Foundation and Sax Institute.

Figures from Quit Victoria show one in 10 Victorians smoke, with men aged 30 to 49 the biggest group of smokers despite significant decreases in all demographic categories in recent years.

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