Press release
Doll/Peto BMJ smoking cancer story
2nd August 2000
Quitting smoking works - and it'snever too late
New data [1] on the impactof quitting smoking shows that it's never too late to pack in thecigarettes. Stopping before 30 almostcompletely removes the excess risk of lung cancer, and stopping before 50 canreduce the risk by almost two thirds
Clive Bates, Director of ASHsaid: "No-one should ever think it's too late to quit, smoking isn't a oneway street ending in an inevitable early and agonising death. People can take control and reduce theirrisks very substantially and very quickly by giving up at any age."
ASH cautioned teenagers andtwenty-somethings against using the new findings as an 'all-clear' to smokeuntil 30 and then quit.
"The great danger aboutsmoking in your twenties and hoping to give up later is that when the timecomes you might not be able to do it. The nicotine in tobacco is as addictive as heroin or cocaine and most adultsover 30 smoking today are doing it because they are hooked, not because theyreally want to" said Bates.
"Smoking causes allsorts of problems other than cancer - everything from being unable to tastefood and play football to asthma, cot death and heart attacks. Even if the cancer figures might reassureyounger smokers, there are many other reasons to quit" said Bates.
"There is no point ingovernments wasting money strenuously trying to prevent kids starting to smoke- almost everything they do will fail or make things worse. The best approach is to tackle adult smoking- that is where the real results are achieved, and it probably sends a moreuseful signal to kids" said Bates.
The estimate that ten timesas many people will die of smoking in the 21st Century compared tothe 20th is shocking and makes the WHO international tobaccoconvention an urgent priority for governments.
"With all we know aboutsmoking, it is amazing and horrifying to think the impact will be ten times asgreat in the next hundred years, making it the world's greatest singleavoidable health problem. Doll and Petohave sent a powerful signal to governments - it is time to take internationalaction to combat the most dramatic manufactured epidemic in history" said Bates.
[1] Doll, R & Peto R.Published in the BMJ 5th August 2000. www.bmj.com
Contact: CliveBates, 020 7739 5902(w) 077 8679 1237(m) 020 8800 1336(h)
Amanda Sandford 020 7739 5902 (w)
