Smokers who choose to quit on January 1, 2025, assuming they smoke 10 cigarettes a day, could save a whole day of their life by January 8, according to new research from University College London (UCL), published on Monday.
The research commissioned by the Department for Health and Social Care, Government of UK, shows smoking is more harmful than previously thought, with every cigarette stealing on average approximately 20 minutes of life from smokers.
This equates to nearly seven hours of life lost when smoking an average pack of 20 cigarettes.
If a smoker quits on New Year’s Day, by February 20, smokers could get a week of their life back and by the end of the year, they could have avoided losing 50 days of life, according to a release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care, Government of UK.
Smoking is one of the world’s leading preventable causes of disease and death, killing up to two-thirds of long-term users. It causes about 80,000 deaths a year in the UK and a quarter of all cancer deaths in England, according to The Guardian.
“People generally know that smoking is harmful but tend to underestimate just how much,” Dr Sarah Jackson, a principal research fellow at UCL’s alcohol and tobacco research group was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
“On average, smokers who don’t quit lose around a decade of life. That’s 10 years of precious time, life moments, and milestones with loved ones," she added.