Five decades after the U.S. surgeon general first warned of the hazards¹ of smoking, researchers reported fresh evidence Wednesday of tobacco's devastating² toll³ on the health of the U.S. population─and of the benefits of quitting.

在美国卫生总监第一次对吸烟的危害提出警告50年之后，研究人员周三发表报告，称找到了烟草对美国人健康造成巨大不利影响──以及戒烟有益──的新证据

Two studies that looked at the effects of smoking over a lifetime found that both men and women who smoke were about three times as likely to die before reaching age 80 in one study, and 75 in the other study, compared with those who never smoked. Associated Press

有两项研究考察了终生吸烟给健康带来的影响，其中一项研究发现，与从不吸烟的人相比，吸烟的男性和女性在80岁之前死亡的可能性提高了两倍，另一项研究则把80岁提前到了75岁。

One of the studies found that women who smoke through their lives lose 11 years of longevity⁴, compared with never-smokers⁵, while men lose about 12 years.

其中一项研究发现，与从不吸烟的女性相比，终生吸烟的女性的生命短了11年，而对于男性而言，则短了12年。

'Men and women are now equal─they both lose a decade of life from smoking,' said Prabhat Jha, director of the center for global health research at University of Toronto. He is lead author of one of the reports, both of which are being published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

多伦多大学(University of Toronto)全球健康研究中心的负责人杰哈(Prabhat Jha)说，男性和女性这次平等了，他们都会因为吸烟而损失10年左右的生命。他是其中一份报告的第一作者，这两份报告都在《新英格兰医学杂志》(New England Journal of Medicine) 发表。

Current estimates are that about 44 million Americans, or 19% of the adult population, are smokers. That's down from about 42% of adults in 1965, the year after the landmark⁶ surgeon general's report that found smoking caused lung cancer in men. Since then, a steady stream of research has linked tobacco use to heightened⁷ risk of a variety of cancers, heart disease and other ailments⁸, as well as death from any cause, among both men and women.

现在流行的一个估计数据是，美国约有4,400万吸烟人口，约占美国成年人总数的19%。相比之下，1965年吸烟人口占成年人的比重为42%。此前一年，美国卫生总监发表了具有里程碑意义的报告，称发现吸烟可导致男性罹患肺癌。从那之后，不断有研究发现，不管是男性还是女性，罹患多种癌症、心脏病和其他疾病以及死亡的风险升高都和吸烟有关。

Because women generally didn't become serious smokers until the 1960s, about two decades after men, previous studies had indicated women were at lower risk of death than men. But with 50 years of smoking experience to evaluate, researchers now say the risk for women has pulled even with men.

因为在上世纪60年代之前，女性吸烟的程度通常比不上男性（比男性晚了20年），之前的研究曾表明，女性因吸烟死亡的风险小于男性。但有了50年的吸烟经历可供评估之后，现在研究人员说，女性因吸烟死亡的风险与男性相同。

Both studies found that quitting smoking at any time─but the earlier the better─helped offset⁹ at least some of the risk of early death. Quitting by age 30 resulted in gaining 10 years of life, compared with those who continued to smoke, Dr. Jha said, while even quitting by age 50 recovered six years of life on average that otherwise would be lost from a lifelong habit.

两项研究均发现，任何时候戒烟都有助于降低──至少是在一定程度上降低──早亡的风险，但戒烟还是越早越好。杰哈博士说，与一直吸烟的人相比，在30岁之前戒烟可以多活10年，更有甚者，与终生吸烟相比，在50岁之前戒烟平均能多活六年。

Dr. Jha's study was based on smoking histories of more than 200,000 men and women 25 years and older who participated in the U.S. National Health Interview survey between 1997 and 2004. The data were linked to causes of death that occurred by the end of 2006.

杰哈博士的研究基础是200,000多名男女的吸烟史，这些人年龄在25岁（含）以上，曾于1997年至2004年之间参与过美国全国健康采访调查。上述数据与2006年年底前死亡者的死因之间存在关联。

The other report, headed by Michael J. Thun of the American Cancer Society, used data from that organization's large cancer-prevention studies and other studies of smoking information, with a focus on people who had reached age 55 or older during the follow-up period.

另外一份报告的第一作者是美国癌症协会(American Cancer Society)的图恩(Michael J. Thun)。他利用了该协会的大规模癌症预防研究和其他有关吸烟方面的研究，重点关注年龄在跟进期达到55岁及以上的人。

One message from the findings is that 'in terms of health benefits, it is never too late to quit,' said Steven Schroeder, director of the smoking-cessation leadership center at University of California, San Francisco, in an editorial¹⁰ accompanying the papers.

在与这两项研究同时刊发的评论文章中，加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校(University of California, San Francisco)的烟瘾戒断领导力中心负责人施罗德(Steven Schroeder)说，两项研究得到的发现传达出的信息之一是，从健康的角度而言，戒烟永远不晚。