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Just one cigarette a day can cause serious heart problems

Among men, half of the risk associated with smoking a pack of 20 comes from just the first cigarette
One is one too many
One is one too many
Riccardo Botta / EyeEm /Getty

Think that a quick smoke won’t do you any harm? Think again. Smoking just one cigarette a day is linked to major risk of heart disease.

That’s according to researchers who analysed the results of 141 studies, and estimated the relative risk associated with smoking one, five or 20 cigarettes per day.

They found that smoking one cigarette a day was associated with at least a 48 per cent increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in men. Women saw at least a 57 per cent increased risk of CHD.

Both men and women who smoke one cigarette a day have a 30 per centincreased risk of stroke.

The team, who were led by researchers from the UCL Cancer Institute at University College London, said there is “no safe level” of smoking as they urged smokers to quit instead of “cutting down”.

One a day

They found that among men, half of the risk associated with smoking a pack of 20 comes from just the first cigarette.

In women, a single cigarette accounted for about a third of the risk associated with one pack.

“Smoking only about one cigarette per day carries a risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke much greater than expected: around half that for people who smoke 20 per day,” the researchers said.

This well-conducted study confirms what many epidemiologists have suspected but few among the public have: light smoking creates a substantial risk for heart disease and stroke, said , at the University of Oxford, in a statement to the Science Media Centre.“The implication is obvious – anyone who smokes should stop.”

“However, it would be wrong to conclude from this study that cutting down smoking is useless,” Aveyard added. “There is more reason to believe that lower cigarette consumption will reduce the risk of chronic lung disease and lung cancer, the other two big causes of early death from smoking, but whether this occurs or not is less clear and the study team did not look at this.

BMJ

Topics: Cancer / Health / smoking / The heart