What is happening here?
If you smoke one or two cigarettes a day, it’s not too terrible.
The probem came from people smoking a pack a day or more, and yes, it’s the kind of habit that tends to grow.
When big tobacco made the stuff plentiful enough that people could support pack-a-day (or even case-a-day) habits, the money was just too good not to defend by surpressing science.
As the fossil fuel revelations have shown, billionaires get desperat for money, and can’t imagine deciding they have enough or sharing substantial portions of their wealth to change the world for the better.
https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/5/315
In both sexes, smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women. .
Reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke a day is a good first step. But, there is no safe level of smoking. The best thing you can do for your health is to stop smoking completely
