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10-02-2014, 01:30 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
BMJ. 2000 January 1; 320(7226): 53. PMCID: PMC1117323
Time for a smoke? One cigarette reduces your life by 11 minutes
Mary Shaw, Economic and Social Research Council research fellow
Richard Mitchell, research fellow
Danny Dorling, reader
Editor—Studies investigating the impact on mortality of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors such as smoking tend to report death rates, death rate ratios, odds ratios, or the chances of smokers reaching different ages. These findings may also be converted into differences in life expectancy. We estimated how much life is lost in smoking one cigarette.
Our calculation is for men only and based on the difference in life expectancy between male smokers and non-smokers and an estimate of the total number of cigarettes a regular male smoker might consume in his lifetime. We derived the difference in life expectancy for smokers and non-smokers by using mortality ratios from the study of Doll et al of 34 000 male doctors over 40 years.1 The relative death rates of smokers compared with non-smokers were threefold for men aged 45-64 and twofold for those aged 65-84,1 as corroborated elsewhere.2 Average life expectancy from birth for the whole population or subgroups can be derived from life tables. Applying the rates of Doll et al to the latest interim life tables for men in England and Wales, with adjustment for the proportion of smokers and non-smokers in each five year age group,3 we found a difference in life expectancy between smokers and non-smokers of 6.5 years.
We used the proportion of smokers by age group, the median age of starting smoking, and the average number of cigarettes smoked per week in the 1996 general household survey.4 We calculated that if a man smokes the average number of cigarettes a year (5772) from the median starting age of 17 until his death at the age of 71 he will consume a total of 311 688 cigarettes in his lifetime.
If we then assume that each cigarette makes the same contribution to his death, each cigarette has cost him, on average, 11 minutes of life:
6.5 years=2374 days, 56 976 hours, or 3 418 560 minutes
5772 cigarettes per year for 54 years=311 688 cigarettes
3 418 560/311 688=11 minutes per cigarette.
This calculation is admittedly crude—it relies on averages, assumes that the health effects of smoking are evenly spread throughout a smoker's lifetime, presupposes that the number of cigarettes smoked throughout a lifetime is constant, and ignores the difficulties in classifying people as either lifetime smokers or non-smokers.5 However, it shows the high cost of smoking in a way that everyone can understand.
The first day of the year is traditionally a time when many smokers try to stop, and on 1 January 2000 a record number might be expected to try to start the new millennium more healthily. The fact that each cigarette they smoke reduces their life by 11 minutes may spur them on. The table shows some better uses for the time they save.
http://i.imgur.com/lv6TzHM.gif
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117323/
http://i.imgur.com/pHOwnYv.gif
About BMJ
The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) is an international peer reviewed medical journal and a fully “online first” publication. Our "continuous publication" model means that all articles appear on bmj.com before being included in an issue of the print journal. The website is updated daily with the BMJ’s latest original research, education, news, and comment articles, as well as podcasts, videos, and blogs.
All the BMJ’s original research is published in full on bmj.com, with open access and no limits on word counts. The BMJ’s vision is to be the world’s most influential and widely read medical journal. Our mission is to lead the debate on health and to engage, inform, and stimulate doctors, researchers, and other health professionals in ways that will improve outcomes for patients. We aim to help doctors to make better decisions. The BMJ team is based mainly in London, although we also have editors elsewhere in Europe and in the US.
Reach and impact
The BMJ’s average weekly print circulation is 121,762 (ABC multi-platform certificate January-June 2013). In the same six month period total monthly unique browsers of bmj.com peaked in May at 1,365,786. The BMJ’s Impact Factor is 17.215 (ISI Web of Science, 2012).
We audit the performance of BMJ research articles, using a wide range of indicators to assess their impact on readers and their dissemination to the wider world.
The print BMJ has a long history and has been published without interruption since 1840, when it began as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal. The print BMJ is now published weekly in three editions that vary only in their advertising content. Together, their weekly circulation totals about 122,000 copies, of which 10,000 are distributed outside Britain. International editions reach another 55,000 readers. The BMJ is printed on 100% recycled paper and mailed in a recyclable wrapper.
In May 1995 the BMJ became the first general medical journal to launch itself into cyberspace as bmj.com going on to win Best Business Product or Service at the PPAi Interactive Publishing Awards 2000, Best Integration of Media at the AOP UK Interactive Publishing Awards 2002, and to be voted one of the web's five most useful health sites by Guardian Online readers and contributors in 2004. Continuous daily publication on bmj.com started in July 2008, with all content appearing online before print publication. We abridge many articles for the print BMJ, including all research.
In July 2008 the BMJ was named Medical Publication of the Year at the Medical Journalist Association's awards in London. BMJ News Editor Annabel Ferriman was jointly awarded Health Editor of the Year, and Susan Mayor was named Medical Journalist of the Year. In the same year the US Specialist Libraries' Association named BMJ as one of the 100 most influential journals in medicine and biology of the past 100 years.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?174645-Time-for-a-smoke-One-cigarette-reduces-your-life-by-11-minutes&goto=newpost).
BMJ. 2000 January 1; 320(7226): 53. PMCID: PMC1117323
Time for a smoke? One cigarette reduces your life by 11 minutes
Mary Shaw, Economic and Social Research Council research fellow
Richard Mitchell, research fellow
Danny Dorling, reader
Editor—Studies investigating the impact on mortality of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors such as smoking tend to report death rates, death rate ratios, odds ratios, or the chances of smokers reaching different ages. These findings may also be converted into differences in life expectancy. We estimated how much life is lost in smoking one cigarette.
Our calculation is for men only and based on the difference in life expectancy between male smokers and non-smokers and an estimate of the total number of cigarettes a regular male smoker might consume in his lifetime. We derived the difference in life expectancy for smokers and non-smokers by using mortality ratios from the study of Doll et al of 34 000 male doctors over 40 years.1 The relative death rates of smokers compared with non-smokers were threefold for men aged 45-64 and twofold for those aged 65-84,1 as corroborated elsewhere.2 Average life expectancy from birth for the whole population or subgroups can be derived from life tables. Applying the rates of Doll et al to the latest interim life tables for men in England and Wales, with adjustment for the proportion of smokers and non-smokers in each five year age group,3 we found a difference in life expectancy between smokers and non-smokers of 6.5 years.
We used the proportion of smokers by age group, the median age of starting smoking, and the average number of cigarettes smoked per week in the 1996 general household survey.4 We calculated that if a man smokes the average number of cigarettes a year (5772) from the median starting age of 17 until his death at the age of 71 he will consume a total of 311 688 cigarettes in his lifetime.
If we then assume that each cigarette makes the same contribution to his death, each cigarette has cost him, on average, 11 minutes of life:
6.5 years=2374 days, 56 976 hours, or 3 418 560 minutes
5772 cigarettes per year for 54 years=311 688 cigarettes
3 418 560/311 688=11 minutes per cigarette.
This calculation is admittedly crude—it relies on averages, assumes that the health effects of smoking are evenly spread throughout a smoker's lifetime, presupposes that the number of cigarettes smoked throughout a lifetime is constant, and ignores the difficulties in classifying people as either lifetime smokers or non-smokers.5 However, it shows the high cost of smoking in a way that everyone can understand.
The first day of the year is traditionally a time when many smokers try to stop, and on 1 January 2000 a record number might be expected to try to start the new millennium more healthily. The fact that each cigarette they smoke reduces their life by 11 minutes may spur them on. The table shows some better uses for the time they save.
http://i.imgur.com/lv6TzHM.gif
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117323/
http://i.imgur.com/pHOwnYv.gif
About BMJ
The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) is an international peer reviewed medical journal and a fully “online first” publication. Our "continuous publication" model means that all articles appear on bmj.com before being included in an issue of the print journal. The website is updated daily with the BMJ’s latest original research, education, news, and comment articles, as well as podcasts, videos, and blogs.
All the BMJ’s original research is published in full on bmj.com, with open access and no limits on word counts. The BMJ’s vision is to be the world’s most influential and widely read medical journal. Our mission is to lead the debate on health and to engage, inform, and stimulate doctors, researchers, and other health professionals in ways that will improve outcomes for patients. We aim to help doctors to make better decisions. The BMJ team is based mainly in London, although we also have editors elsewhere in Europe and in the US.
Reach and impact
The BMJ’s average weekly print circulation is 121,762 (ABC multi-platform certificate January-June 2013). In the same six month period total monthly unique browsers of bmj.com peaked in May at 1,365,786. The BMJ’s Impact Factor is 17.215 (ISI Web of Science, 2012).
We audit the performance of BMJ research articles, using a wide range of indicators to assess their impact on readers and their dissemination to the wider world.
The print BMJ has a long history and has been published without interruption since 1840, when it began as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal. The print BMJ is now published weekly in three editions that vary only in their advertising content. Together, their weekly circulation totals about 122,000 copies, of which 10,000 are distributed outside Britain. International editions reach another 55,000 readers. The BMJ is printed on 100% recycled paper and mailed in a recyclable wrapper.
In May 1995 the BMJ became the first general medical journal to launch itself into cyberspace as bmj.com going on to win Best Business Product or Service at the PPAi Interactive Publishing Awards 2000, Best Integration of Media at the AOP UK Interactive Publishing Awards 2002, and to be voted one of the web's five most useful health sites by Guardian Online readers and contributors in 2004. Continuous daily publication on bmj.com started in July 2008, with all content appearing online before print publication. We abridge many articles for the print BMJ, including all research.
In July 2008 the BMJ was named Medical Publication of the Year at the Medical Journalist Association's awards in London. BMJ News Editor Annabel Ferriman was jointly awarded Health Editor of the Year, and Susan Mayor was named Medical Journalist of the Year. In the same year the US Specialist Libraries' Association named BMJ as one of the 100 most influential journals in medicine and biology of the past 100 years.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?174645-Time-for-a-smoke-One-cigarette-reduces-your-life-by-11-minutes&goto=newpost).