Tobacco Terminates At Least 60,000 More American Lives Than Previously Thought

Smoking hurts Americans more than previously thought. Analyses of five studies have shown that at least 60,000 additional deaths can be attributed to smoking tobacco.

"A substantial portion of the excess mortality among current smokers between 2000 and 2011 was due to associations with diseases that have not been formally established as caused by smoking," researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to The New York Times, the increased damage due to tobacco was due a gamut of infections, kidney disease, and intestinal disease besides additional diseases of lung and heart. The findings were made after 10-year observation of nearly one million people.

America has 42 million smokers who have death rates two or three times higher than non-smokers with life expectancy decreased by nearly a decade, NYT reported as per CDC findings. Smoking is currently tied to 21 diseases including 12 types of cancers. Heart attack, lung cancer and stroke claim most lives.

New York Daily News further reported that the new research suggested an increased risk of prostate and breast cancer. Accordingly, women who smoke are 30 percent more likely to die of breast cancer compared to non-smokers. The risk of dying of prostate cancer is 40 percent higher for smokers.

Researchers are confident of their findings as they found reduced risk for those who quit smoking with longer periods of abstinence associated with greater risk reduction.