According to recent research, one cigarette is adequate to lead one to adopt smoking as a daily habit. At least 3 out of 5 people who try a cigarette become daily smokers.
The findings come from 215,000 respondents from Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand. The rate of conversion from ‘first time smoker’ to ‘daily smoker’ is unexpectedly high – helping to confirm the importance of preventing cigarette experimentation.
Researchers estimated that 60.3% of respondents said they smoked a cigarette and 68.9% of them commenced smoking on a daily basis.
Researchers note that the decline in smoking rates over the past 20 years is probably due to reduced experimentation among adolescents.
The findings were published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.