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Researchers are still studying the lasting impacts of smoking and tobacco even after years of giving up the habit.
As per the World Health Organization, about 8 million people die every year across the world due to consumption of tobacco.
A new study, published in Nature has now found that smoking changes the immune system for a much longer period than earlier thought.
It specifically alters the body's adaptive immunity which has the memory of how it fought an infection previously.
The researchers studied blood and other samples of 1000 healthy people in France starting from more than a decade ago.
It also confirmed the result of a previous study that smoking effects 'innate immunity' which is the initial defence against a foreign infection in human body.
The researchers said the sample size was too small to tell precisely how long the impact of smoking lasts.
The researchers could not point out what clear consequences these changes may have on human body.
But hypothetically they said, it may affect people's risk of infections, cancer or autoimmune diseases.