Smokers: It’s Never Too Late to Quit or Switch to Smoke-Free

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Brad Rodu

Endowed Chair, Tobacco Harm Reduction Research at James Graham Brown Cancer Center

Dr. Brad Rodu is a Senior Fellow of the Heartland Institute and holds the Endowed Chair in Tobacco Harm Reduction Research at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

Rodu’s research focuses on the substitution of safer tobacco products by smokers who are unable or unwilling to quit smoking with conventional cessation methods because of their addiction to nicotine. His research in comparative epidemiology established the scientific foundation for harm reduction and he continues to study clinical and social interventions aimed at harm reduction.

Latest posts by Brad Rodu (see all)

• The War Against Tobacco Flavors Will Fail - February 7, 2019
• American Cancer Society Sees Zero Cancer Risk for Smokeless Tobacco - June 15, 2018
• UC San Francisco Authors Inadvertently Validate Our Call for Retraction - April 6, 2018

Man smoking E-Cigarette.

A new study from researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Aging finds that even smokers in their 60s who quit can reduce their chances of dying early.

In 1995, 160,000 people age 50-71 years were enrolled in the study; data on their smoking and quitting was collected in 2004-2005.  Researchers documented causes of death and calculated rates through 2011 among never, current and former smokers, with adjustment for other risk factors. The study appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (abstract here).

Current smokers were three times as likely to die during the study as never smokers.  Compared with current smokers, former smokers had significantly lower death rates; the magnitude of the reduction correlated with the age when they quit.  For example, smokers who quit in their 30s had a death rate that was 57% lower, while those who quit in their 50s had a 36% lower rate.  Even smokers who quit in their 60s had a 23% lower rate.

This study should give hope to smokers of all ages, but this is not new information.  In 1996, Dr. Philip Cole and I published similar research in the journal Epidemiology (here).  We estimated how long never and current smokers of various ages would live on average.  In addition, we estimated remaining years for quitters and switchers.  Here are our results:

The good news: No matter what age, smokers can improve their life expectancy if they quit or switch.  It’s never too late to move to a smoke-free substitute.

[First published at Tobacco Truth  at http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com]