Smoking 'far more deadly for women'

Smoking kills women eight years earlier than men, a study suggests.

It cuts 11 years off a woman's average life expectancy but just three years off a man's.

Scientists said they had yet to find a reason for the difference. But they said a factor could be that women are more susceptible to the commonest form of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma.

The findings come from a study of lung cancer deaths in Holland in

2003. Female sufferers lived until 70 on average, compared with a typical Dutch woman's life expectancy of 81 years. Male sufferers, however, died on average at 73 - three years below Dutch men's average life expectancy.

' Women who died from lung cancer were younger than men who died from the same cause,' said a spokesman for Dutch government research agency CBS. 'This means the harmful effects of smoking are more serious for women.'

Anti-smoking lobbyists Ash said: 'There is little point in point-scoring between men and women: smoking is bad for everyone. What we do know is that smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer.'

Smoking-related illnesses kill 114,000 Britons every year, with tobacco accounting for 84 per cent of lung cancer cases.

Some 12million Britons smoke - 28 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women.

SMOKERS as young as 14 are to be given nicotine patches and gum to help them quit the habit in a two-year project funded by £180,000 of lottery money in Lanarkshire, Scotland.