London - British scientists have sounded an urgent new warning on smoking.

Smoking causes damage to virtually all aspects of human reproductive and sexual health and makes women about 40 percent less likely to become pregnant.

The study by the British Medical Association said that apart from the better-known risks of tobacco, such as cancer and heart disease, an estimated 120 000 UK men aged 30 to 50 were impotent due to smoking.

Smoking and passive smoking are linked to about 4 000 miscarriages in Britain every year, researchers said in the report, entitled Smoking and Reproductive Life.

Smoking was implicated in about 1 200 cases of cervical cancer every year.
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• This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on February 12, 2004