Death from tobacco add up to the population of London, say campaigners

SMOKING has killed 6.3 Britons – the equivalent of the population of London – over the past 50 years, according to a study.

Although increasing numbers are giving up, the death toll from tobacco is still high, Oxford University research has revealed.

The figures led to renewed calls from health experts for smokers to give up.

Jean King, of Cancer Research UK, said the statistics were 'startling’.

She added: ‘The fact that tobacco’s death toll over the past 50 years equates to nearly the population of London is a graphic illustration of the devastation smoking causes.

'Smoking bereaves thousands of families every year. And it dam­ages our economy by killing one of our greatest resources - people.’

Between 1950 and 2000, 42 per cent of deaths in men aged 35 to 69 were caused by tobacco, the study found.

This peaked in the 1960s, when smoking caused half of all deaths in middle-aged men.

Over the same period, tobacco caused 16 per cent of deaths in middle-aged women, peaking in the late 1980s at around one quarter of deaths.

Smoking has killed a higher proportion of people in Scotland than in England and Wales, according to the study, conducted by Sir Richard Peto, professor of medical statistics at Oxford. In 2000 it caused 42 per cent of deaths among Scottish men from cancer, compared with 35 per cent in England and Wales.

Among women, it caused 28 per cent of deaths from cancer in Scotland compared with 20 per cent in England and Wales.

The study also found that smoking has been a major cause of heart disease. One in five premature deaths from heart and circulatory disease in women in 2000 was caused by tobacco.

However the situation is improving. The proportion of deaths in middle-aged men linked to smoking fell from 48 per cent in 1965 to 25 per cent in 2000.

The research, funded by the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research and the British Heart Foundation, was released in the run-up to No Smoking Day next Wednesday.

Sir Richard said: ‘A lot of people have stopped smoking, which has led to rates of tobacco deaths falling faster in the UK than anywhere else in the world. On average, those who continue to smoke lose ten years of life but stopping smoking at ages 60, 50, 40 or 30 gains three, six, nine or the full ten years of life expectancy.

‘Of those who continue to smoke, half will be killed by their habit.’

Maura Gillespie, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Stopping smoking is the single most important thing any smoker can do to stave off heart disease and seize back years of life.’ Medical Research Council chief executive Professor Colin Blakemore said: ‘This study shows the value of long-term investment in clinical research to provide accurate information about disease prevention.

‘With this information, people can then make positive choices to improve their health.’

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