Smokers urged to quit as one cigarette 'takes 20 minutes off life expectancy'

Smokers are being urged to kick the habit for 2025 after a fresh assessment of the harms of cigarettes found they shorten life expectancy by even more than doctors thought.

- Ian Sample

Researchers at University College London found that on average a single cigarette takes about 20 minutes off a person's life, meaning that a typical pack of 20 cigarettes can shorten life by nearly seven hours.

According to the analysis, if a smoker on 10 cigarettes a day quits on 1 January, they could prevent the loss of a full day of life by 8 January. They could boost their life expectancy by a week if they quit until 5 February and a whole month if they stop until 5 August. By the end of the year, they could have avoided losing 50 days of life, the assessment found.

"People generally know that smoking is harmful but tend to underestimate just how much," said Dr Sarah Jackson, a principal research fellow at UCL's alcohol and tobacco research group. "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."