Several studies have shown on various occasions that smoking can be deadly, but a recent one brings new data to this problem. Cigarette smoking increases the risk of dying in middle age, but giving up this damaging habit strongly decreases the risk of dying prematurely. 24,500 women and 25,000 men in rural Norway born between 1925 and 1941 were closely followed for a period of 25 years and researchers found that 41% of men and 26% of women who continued smoking died between the ages of 40 and 70 years, while 14% of nonsmoking men and 9% of women died in that same period. This death data was charted into a graphic, resulting in the gentlest curve for people who had not smoked all their lives, the steepest curb for lifelong smokers, while those who quit smoking were situated in between. Stein Emil Vollset's team of researchers encourages smokers to quit as soon as they can, saying: "These data support the public health message that 'It's never too late to quit' and the expansion of smoking cessation and tobacco control activities aimed at older persons." Even if the results, as scientists stated, may differ for other groups of middle-aged people, the certain thing is that these results "should be a reminder of the historic dimension of the smoking epidemic" that annually causes the deaths of millions of people worldwide.