Women who smoke beyond 40 lose nine years off their lives, study finds

Women can add nine years to their lives by quitting smoking before the age of 40 but still face a 20-per cent higher death rate than those who never smoked, a study said yesterday.

Published in The Lancet, a survey of nearly 1.2 million women in Britain showed that smoking throughout adulthood chopped on average 11 years off lifespan. These results echoed the findings of earlier research conducted on men.

Among women who kicked the habit before the age of 40, the researchers measured an average lifespan gain of more than nine years compared with those who never stopped. For those who quit before 30, the gains were even bigger - about 10 years.

"Whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra 10 years of life," study co-author Richard Peto of the University of Oxford said.

However, the paper warned this did not mean that it was safe to continue smoking until 40 before quitting.

"Women who do so have throughout the next few decades of their lives a mortality rate 1.2 times that of never-smokers. This is a substantial excess risk, causing one in six of the deaths among these ex-smokers," the study pointed out.