Even a ciggy or two a day is bad for you

Smokers who believe a few cigarettes a day don't do any harm will need to think again.

Norwegian scientists who studied the health records of 43,000 men and women have shown that even light smoking - fewer than five cigarettes daily - triples the risk of dying of heart disease or lung cancer.

Dr Aage Tverdal of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo said one to four cigarettes a day were enough to significantly increase the risk of ischaemic heart disease in men and women, and lung cancer in women.

The study was published in the journal Tobacco Control.

The researchers tracked the health and death records and smoking habits of the men and women, who had been screened for heart disease at the start of the study, from the 1970s to the 2002.

They found little difference in the risk of dying from cancer, apart from lung cancer. Men who were light smokers were about three times more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers.

In women the risk rose to five times higher.

- REUTERS