Early morning smokers have higher cancer risk

People who smoke their first cigarette soon after waking up are more likely to develop cancer than those who spark up later in the day, scientists have revealed.

New research from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in the US, published in the journal Cancer, said that early morning smoking increases the risk of lung, head and neck cancers in a way that is independent of other smoking factors.

The scientists studied more than 7,610 smokers, comprised of 4,775 lung cancer cases and 2,835 controls, and found that those who smoke in the first 30 minutes of waking are 79 per cent more likely to develop cancer than those who smoked more than an hour after getting up.

"These smokers have higher levels of nicotine and possibly other tobacco toxins in their body, and they may be more addicted than smokers who refrain from smoking for a half hour or more," said Dr Joshua Muscat of the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey.

Cancer Research UK's Professor Robert West told the BBC that smokers who light up soon after waking up smoke each cigarette "more intensively".