Even one ciggie can harm you

‘Part-time’ puffers are as at risk as heavy smokers

CONSIDER yourself a social or occasional smoker? Do you only smoke at parties and not think of yourself as being a “real” smoker?

It is estimated that 2 percent of adults fall into this category and it is thought they smoke on average less than one cigarette a day.

For some health conditions, such as cancer, the risk largely corresponds to how much you smoke. But for other problems, including heart attacks and strokes, even one cigarette can make a big difference.

Last month, a study of more than 65 000 people found that those who puffed 20 cigarettes a day had a high risk of a common and deadly type of stroke caused by a brain bleed.

But so, too, did those who smoked between one and 10 cigarettes a day.

The results, published in the journal Stroke, found that these lower-level smokers had around a three times greater risk than people who didn’t smoke at all.

Women had a higher risk than men – the researchers suggested smoking even one cigarette a day regularly reduced oestrogen levels, which disrupted collagen (a protein that helps maintain the structure of blood vessels and skin) making the blood vessels weaker and increasing inflammation in vessel walls.

A 2014 survey showed that of Britain’s 1.1 million “parttime” smokers, only one in four was concerned about harm.

They consistently described their habit as social – despite the fact that some smoked up to 37 cigarettes a week.

One cigarette cuts your life by 11 minutes, according to a study published in the BMJ in 2000.

Lifelong smokers – those who smoke 20 a day or more – lose at least 10 years of their life, while light smokers, smoking fewer than five a day, lose four to six years, says Lion Shahab, a senior lecturer in health psychology at University College London.

“Any smoking at all doubles the risk of dying prematurely.”

And evidence suggests that those who consider themselves “casual” smokers are anything but.

A 2014 study by University College London (UCL) researchers found that around 80 percent of occasional smokers weren’t able to quit.

The difference is that rather than people needing a constant “fag fix”, occasional smokers’ brains had developed an association between the situation they smoke in and the need to smoke – creating an impulsive craving for nicotine when they are there – which is known as an occasional addiction.

Nicotine poses few health risks, but it’s the chemical that causes addiction, while the other 600-odd ingredients in a cigarette are what can be harmful.

Labels such as social smoker change how people perceive the risks of their habit.

As with regular smoking, one of the major risks of intermittent smoking is heart disease.

And one study found smoking even one to four cigarettes a day could triple the risk of dying from heart disease.

This is down to the fact smoking increases furring up of arteries, raising the risk of a heart attack due to clots and reduced blood flow.

Here, being a social smoker is particularly dangerous – going from no cigarettes to one cigarette is the most critical and riskiest change, says Robert West, a professor of health psychology at UCL.

This is because when inhaling the cigarette, the body produce cells called macrophages to clear gunk from lungs.

But breaking down this gunk also releases a protein known as prothrombin, which immediately makes blood stickier and more likely to clot.

Any level of smoking can also affect men and women’s fertility, says Shahab.