New research by experts aimed at studying the ill effects of smoking on the human body, have further bad news for smokers. According to the new study, smoking reduces life expectancy by 10 years and not 4 years, as was earlier believed. The results of the study take the Japanese population into consideration as compared to a worldwide population.
Researchers in Japan as well as Oxford University have come up with the new research results after studying a large group of Japanese people who had lived in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the 1950’s. The investigation was originally aimed at studying the effects of radiation on over 100,000 people.
As most people in the Life Span Study (LSS) did not suffer from major exposure to radiation, they could be used as a study group for other risk factors such as smoking. According to the study, a younger person who starts smoking earlier is at a greater risk as compared to someone who starts smoking later in life. The study also noted that people from earlier generations did not start smoking until they were adults, and smoked fewer cigarettes than what is being smoked today.
If results are to be compared with those in the US or Britain, it was found that people born in Japan between 1920 to 1945 were at a higher risk than their foreign counterparts, as they started smoking earlier.
