The Cancer Research Campaign backed the call to focus efforts on persuading adults to give up. The government is due to publish a white paper on public health in the autumn, which will cover strategies to prevent smoking. After 10 years the risk of cancer is significantly reduced, and it only takes one year to cut the risk of heart disease. She added that although nicotine was extremely addictive and hence difficult to give up, there were plenty of support bodies to help smokers quit. The reason for the advantages of quitting applying at any age could lie in the sequential way lung cancer develops.
Tobacco can trigger changes to cells.
A series of these changes must occur to trigger lung cancer, so if someone gives up smoking before all of them have taken place, they are unlikely to develop the disease. He said that half of all smokers die as a result of their tobacco use, not a quarter as was previously thought. Other factors that could cause the cancer were a poor diet lacking in fresh fruit or vegetables and prolonged exposure to the sun. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.