Influence of dose and duration of smoking on lung cancer rates.
Lung cancer risks depend far more strongly on the duration than on the daily dose-rate of cigarette smoking. For example, a three-fold increase in the daily dose-rate may produce only about a three-fold increase in effect, while a three-fold increase in duration might produce about a 100-fold increase in effect. Hence, a few decades after cigarette smoking becomes widespread, national lung cancer rates may remain very misleadingly low, even though they will eventually become extremely high.
D000367:Age Factors; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D012306:Risk; D012907:Smoking; D013997:Time Factors