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Topics: Health, News, Science, World News, Cancer
Kit Roberts
Scientists have made a harrowing warning about the impact of smoking even a small amount.
By now, it's pretty universally accepted that smoking is very bad for you; we all remember those images of healthy lungs and a tar-blackened smoker's lungs.
Risks are increased for serious health conditions including cancer, heart disease, blood clots - you name it, smoking probably makes it worse in some way.
Smoking more of course increases your risk, with more carcinogens and more build-up of tar. But some people might still think that having just one or two cigarettes a day, while not great, is not as harmful as having, sa,y 10 or 20.
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However, scientists have now issued a shocking warning about the dangers of smoking even a relatively small amount.
Research was carried out at John Hopkins University and examined the smoking habits of over 300,000 adults over the course of around 20 years.
This found that people who smoked even just two cigarettes a day had a 60 percent higher risk of death from any cause when compared to people who had never smoked.
The study, publishing 18 November in the journal PLOS Medicine, also found that the smoking group had a 50 percent higher risk for heart disease.
Dr. Jennifer Miao is a cardiologist at Yale University and an ABC News Medical Unit fellow, and said: "Tobacco use is a very well-established risk factor for heart disease.
"It really damages the blood vessel lining and it accelerates the development of plaques and coronary artery disease."
However, the study authors have still emphasised that despite an increased risk, stopping smoking still more or less immediately reduces your level of health risk.
Dr. Erfan Tasdighi is an internal medicine physician at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a co-author on the study.
"It's important that people know that when they stop smoking, their risk goes down immediately and significantly," he told ABC, adding: "It's important to quit smoking early on, and no amount of smoking is without risk and health consequences."
But Dr Tasdighi was clear about the about the study's findings - smoking even a little bit is still very bad for you.
"We actually have the evidence ... to say that even less than one cigarette a day can increase different multiple cardiovascular outcomes, and it's not something that's clinically insignificant," he said.
Nonetheless, the doctor acknowledged that quitting smoking can be no easy task, saying: "It's very, very important for us as clinicians to acknowledge that it's a lot easier said than done."