Many people still underestimate the damage to health even a few cigarettes can cause, new research suggests.

According to French doctors, despite years of public health campaigning on this issue, it is clear that ‘the war against tobacco is not over'.

They analysed data from a survey of over 1,600 people aged between 45 and 70 years. The participants included current smokers - who smoked an average of 14 cigarettes per day - former smokers and non-smokers.

"Nowadays everyone knows that smoking is a risk factor for developing several cancers, especially lung cancer. In this new survey we hypothesised that the perception of the risk of developing this disease could be influenced by personal smoking history. In other words, we thought that the risk might be minimised in smokers compared with never-smokers," explained Dr Laurent Greillier, an oncologist at the Hospital Nord in Marseille.

The doctors found that 34% of the participants incorrectly believed that smoking up to 10 cigarettes per day did not increase the risk of lung cancer.

"This finding is particularly impressive and threatening. It shows that relatively low cigarette consumption is considered as ‘safe' for a lot of people. In our study, only half of subjects answered that there is no ‘safe' cigarette," Dr Greillier noted.

Meanwhile, less than 40% of people were aware that even if a person quits smoking, they still have an increased risk of developing lung cancer.

"It seems that people are aware about the dangers of tobacco for health, but might consider that the risks are not for themselves, but only for other people," Dr Greillier suggested.

He said that public health campaigns should highlight the fact that any cigarette can cause damage.

Details of these findings were presented at the recent European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.